I want to be a cowboy
by The wander
Summary: What could have happend if Xander had been sent to prison for bombing the school.this is A highlander cross over.
1. Chapter 1

This not for profit, just for fun.

Plot: What if some the school bombing was investagated  
by real cops, not Sunnydale cops.

Hope you enjoy.

"Fun day," Xander mused to himself.

The Scoobies had just had good night. The Town didn't  
though.

The Mayor was dead. The big bad they had been fighting  
for over a year. He had made it to demon form, and  
they had taken him out. But in the end Snyder and 20  
students and parents had died, too.

It was a happy time and a sad one, too. He had led the  
students in the fight and lost a few friends there.  
But the town was still breathing, which was all to the  
good. He was to meet Buffy and Willow today, and it  
was going to be their last free time. The girls were  
going off to College and he was off to the working  
world; well, after his tour of the USA, that is.

The next few days were going to be the best in  
Xander's life.

'Til the FBI came to town.

Xander was heading toward Buffy's house. He was  
leaving in the morning and the rest of the country  
awaited. He was just about to knock on the door when…

"Freeze! FBI!"

Men came out of the wood work and little red dots  
appeared all over his chest.

Looking up the street at Buffy's house, he could see  
her and Willow standing in the window, looking at him  
as the Agents threw him to the ground and cuffed him.

One of the Agents was a tall man, who was busy  
informing him of his rights.

"Alexander Harris. You are under arrest. You have the  
right to remain silent..."

Xander just lost track of the rest. He just watched  
Willow crying and Buffy mouthing unheard words and he  
immediately realized what he had to do: protect his  
girls.  
Buffy was THE Slayer and needed to be out in the  
world. And his Willow, she would never make it through  
any of this.

Him, though, what did he have? Nothing. Just them.  
And he wasn't about to let anything happen to them if  
he could help it.

So he would take the fall. For everything they'd  
done.

Sunnydale P.D. headquarters

"Mr. Harris, please tell us why you did it?" Agent  
Mulder asked in a low voice.

"I didn't do anything."

"We have you on tape," Mulder pointed a remote at a TV  
in the counter, the screen clicked on and a tape  
started. "This is a Security tape from a security  
camera across the street from the school.

The tape clearly shown Xander getting out of a van and  
rolling drums into the school. Also, he appears to be  
talking to someone who wasn't there.

Angel, of course. Figures it had to be a vampire.  
No one can take pictures of them, so of course they  
wouldn't be on video tape, Xander thought to  
himself.

"Still not saying anything."

If I talk, I'll slip up and tell about the others.

"Alexander, please, I want to help you. But you have  
to talk. The bomb killed a lot of people. You could  
get the death penalty."

"I can't say anything."

"Can't or won't? Who else are you protecting?"

Who was I protecting? Giles...Buffy...Willow. Even  
that useless wimp, Wesley. All of them fighting the  
good fight.

"I was alone."

"No, you were not. The bomb was put together by  
someone with Military training. We found a rocket  
launcher hidden in your room. How did you get that?"

"Not talking."

Outside the interrogation room.  
Agent Mulder's partner watched the interrogation with  
some of the local police.

"That Harris boy was always going to be trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we'd get three or four calls a week to his  
house. His parents would be drunk and fighting  
usually."

"The boy's medical record shows he has had been beaten  
just about everyday. He had new bruises every time he  
was seen, sometimes even broken bones. And you still  
did nothing?"

"Calm down, Agent Scully. We had orders not to  
interfere with that house that came from the Mayor's  
office."

"What? Why would the Mayor care about him?"

"Don't know. Just that boy could just about do  
anything and we were told to look the other way. He  
was always in a fight somewhere. Could be found  
wandering the streets at all hours. I even found him  
sleeping in the middle of Main street, one time."

"Just what was going on in that house?"

Buffy's house

Willow and Buffy were sitting around, still in shock.  
The TV was broadcasting a news report of Xander's  
arrest.

"The Troubled Teen is reported to have killed at least  
23 people in the Graduation bombing. His parents have  
not made a statement at this time, and the police have  
only said that they have a subject under arrest. But  
we did gotten an interview with a Student at the  
school that told us that Alexander was a slacker who  
skipped class and was always in fights. There were  
even rumors that he was a homosexual, and that that  
was the reason he did this terrible crime."

"What is happening?" Willow said softly.

"I don't know but we have to do something," Buffy  
insisted. "Xander didn't do anything wrong."

Giles walked in, having been at the Police station all  
day.

"Giles, what's going on?" Buffy asked, as her mom also  
walked in to see what Giles had to say.  
"I talked to an Officer there. It seems that Xander  
is not talking to anyone. He is apparently taking the  
blame for everything."

"Well, I'm going to go down there and get him out,"  
Buffy announced as she got up and started to the door.

"Buffy, STOP!" Giles called to his Slayer. "I have  
been in contact with The Council and they are doing  
everything they can to cover for us. But not him.  
They will throw us to the wolves and wait for the next  
Slayer to be Called if we so much interfere with this.  
According to them, this is a Mortal concern."

"What?" Willow yelled at him. "Xander is our  
friend!"

"Of course, Willow. I know he is, and he is very dear  
to us all. But the Council doesn't see it that way.  
As far as they are concerned, he is a normal boy  
here."

"What? All of these children are normal," Joyce said,  
tears in her eyes.

"No, Joyce. They are not. Willow is a novice Witch,  
Buffy is a Slayer, Oz is a Werewolf and I am a  
Watcher. The Council considers that a bonus. But  
Xander  
has no useful skills in their estimation, so he is on  
his own as far as the Council is concerned."

"But we have to do something," Buffy insisted.

"I have planned on it. I using some of my personal  
money to get him a good Lawyer, see how it proceeds  
from there."

Sunnydale Police Station.

"Mulder, something is not adding up here."

"What do you mean, Scully?" he asked from across the  
desk, as he finished up his report.

"Well, where is the Mayor's body? No one found it.  
And from everyone we talked to about Harris, no one  
believes that he could kill someone."

"Scully, we've heard that before many times before.  
No one wants to believe that next door neighbor could  
kill anyone. But it's always the guy next door that  
DOES kill someone."

"I know, but this kid is not a murderer."

"I don't think so, either."

"What then why..."  
"He knows who did this. And the big question is  
'why?' The Mayor was very interested in him and some  
of his friends. Why? Did you know that the Mayor has  
no record of his birth, and he has apparently never  
been out of office in 100 years."

"Come on..."

"Here, look at this," he said as he pushed a book of  
old newspaper photographs over to her.

Looking at the photos, she saw a progression of photos  
of Mayor Wilkins, from around the early 1890's 'til  
1998.

"This is incredible."

"It is, isn't it."

In the integration room

Xander sat looking from his lawyer to his parents.

"Just tell me who else was in on it. I can use that  
to get a better sentence."

"No one helped me. I was on my on."

"No, you weren't. That gang of sluts helped you,"  
Mrs. Harris said.

"Gang? We can work with that."

"Its ME. No one else was there, I did it alone!"

"No, son, you did it with a gang. Just get in front  
of the Judge and tell all about your friends that  
helped you, and you should get off."

"Ms. Morgan, I did it all alone. Just me."

"If you don't tell the Judge about your gang, you WILL  
go to prison," Lila Morgan promised him. "We at  
Wolfram & Hart can only do so much."

"I did it. I will take the fall. No one else was  
there; no one else was part of this."

Later that day

Willow and Buffy had just left. They had fought and  
fought with Xander, insisting that they were going to  
tell the truth and let the chips fall where they  
might. They were not letting Xander do this.

He had finally talked them into letting it happen theway he wanted. Besides what the Council would do to  
help, which was nothing, it would put people in  
danger.

Buffy was the Slayer and needed to be free. And  
Willow what wouldn't be able to help if she was in  
Prison with him, leaving Buffy alone to fight the good  
fight.

It was a bitter truth for them, but it was still a  
truth.

As soon as they had gone, he was taken in front of a  
Judge, where the Judge asked him for his plea.

He didn't say anything, merely looked blankly at him.  
His lawyer tried to get him to say something, bit  
Xander just looked out the window.

He had known that one day he would lose the good  
fight, but he always thought it would be a monster  
that got him, not this.

But he would take this just as he would take anything  
to help Buffy. Whether it was a claw, sword or jail  
time, he would take it.

So long as she was free.


	2. Chapter 2

The Trial. (Part 2 of the I want to be a Cowboy)

Don't own any thing. Just for fun.

Thanks to Greywizard for Beta read.

What Happen after Xander was arrest an went to trial.

Hope you enjoy,

The trial was a joke. Only, it was on me.

I would not say anything and all they did was add more  
years to my sentence for contempt of court. Now I ask  
you when you're up for the Death sentence, how much  
more can they add on?

My lawyer did try the crazy defense. Just not very  
hard. She was pissed I wouldn't tell the court about  
the others. And that got to me. HOW did she know  
about them?

She would just try to surprise me every now and then,  
try to get me to say something. She had a few meeting  
with the DA and judge while I was sitting in my cell.  
And After the last one, that when I found out she was  
NOT on my side. Whose side she was on, I didn't know,  
but she was setting me up.

I tried to get a new lawyer, but the Judge turned me  
down. He said the trial had gone too far and to get a  
new lawyer up to speed on it would just be a waste of  
time.

The Scoobies were called in, one at a time. Willow,  
sweetheart that she is, broke down in court and had to  
walked out. She couldn't say anything to help me.Every time she said something, the DA turned it around  
on her. By the end of her statements, I was the next  
Jack the Ripper.

And speaking of Ripper, Giles came in. He didn't say  
much that would help me but didn't say anything that  
would hurt either. He tried, I could tell, but there  
was just too much against me.

I had some time to talk to him later. I found out the  
Council was cleaning up everything having to do with  
them. Not me. Just them. Should have let Oz bite  
me; then, maybe I would be important enough to get  
out.

Buffy and Ms Summers were there, too, but they  
couldn't get much out of them. Looked like Buffy was  
going to slay the DA, once or twice. He made it seem  
that when Buffy turned me down, I started to get into  
drugs. The Gangs on PCP thing came up once or twice,  
too. I just about fell out of my chair the first time  
I heard that one. Then, They brought up the Hyena,  
evidence about me eating the pig, Links with the  
others around Mr.Fluties death, How I was acting about  
that time. Supposedly, I was working with the gangs to  
get into the school and I was seen driving around with  
O'Toole, the local troublemaker, before he  
disappeared. The rest of the Gang didn't understand  
what that part meant, but I did. A group of boys seen  
breaking and entering stores, and then they all  
disappear but me?

Even Giles looked at me funny after that. That was  
when the dates in question hit him. The Hellmouth had  
opened that night.

And I was at home. Or so they thought.

Now he would wonder what else I had done. Don't know  
if that was a good thing, right then. I had seen both  
Willow and Buffy talking to him after that.

Then came the Biggie.

Private James Ackerson. He was stationed at themilitary base outside of Sunnydale. He remembered me  
from my little trip there. And that brought in the  
rocket launcher.

And then there were a whole list of people that saw me  
at the Mall when it was allegedly used to blow up a  
statue there.

Luckily, Cordy wasn't in court when Ackerson was  
there. He would have remembered her, too.

Then came Special Agent Fox Mulder. He was the last  
nail in my coffin. His testimony was the most damning  
that there could be. I was sentenced to death.

But the way the courts work, that just meant I was in  
for Life.

I was waiting to be sent to my last home on earth  
when...

"Alex, could we talk?"

Xander looked up at Fox Mulder as he walked up to his  
cell.

"I don't think you were alone in this. Just tell me  
who else was a part of this and we can work something  
out. You wouldn't have to die for them."

Die for them? Why not? Buffy was willing to die  
for strangers every night; could I do less for her?

"Where are they? If they were such good friends,  
would they let you die for them?"

No, they wouldn't. But they have to. So, dickweeds  
like you can stay alive, Mulder.

"Come on. You can't be willing to just take this  
alone. You just tell me who they were and I can get  
you off. You'd still be in prison but NO needle."  
Mulder almost begging.  
Yeah, right. Just turn my back on my friends, then  
let the vampires take over the Hellmouth. Not going  
to happen.

"Agent Mulder, shut up, and leave me alone. You are  
starting to bother me, and you really don't want me to  
start bothering you."

"Look, son. I'm just trying to help you."

"Son? Did you call me Son? That's funny. Does the  
old bastard out there know you've been fucking my  
mom?"

"What?"

"Let's get something straight. I am not your son,  
your friend or anything else. And if I could, I would  
beating your ass right now. So get out!"

Outside the cell block.

Scully looked up from a monitor as Mulder walked in.

"Got yourself a fan there, don't you?"

"Give it a rest. I thought I could get through to  
him. Looks like I can't."

"You can't help someone that doesn't want it."

Later that day.

The ride to the prison was long and dry. It was in  
the middle of a salt flat. Funny thing about it, it  
was only 3 miles from Sunnydale. He'd been out to the  
salt flats on a Class trip one time with Willow. Now  
it would be his home.

The Prison was huge. Wilkins Prison, named after thefirst warden, who later moved on, to found Sunnydale.  
It was a Gothic structure. On the outside, it was  
smooth and foreboding, and inside it didn't get much  
better.

It was a dark place for the Soul. It also had the  
record for the amount of inmates that kill themselves.  
A lot were suicide by guard; just pick a fight and  
wait for the Guards, then try to kill them. You  
usually end up dead. So you get your wish, you're out  
of here.

They cremate the bodies here, too. Not enough land to  
use, that wasn't covered in salt.

It was hell.

Then it got bad...


	3. Chapter 3

next part of the Cowboy story. enjoy.

Jail time.

What happens after Xander gets to Jail.

Thanks to GreyWizard for the beta read.

Its just for fun. not profit.

enjoy

From the first day, Xander knew where he stood in  
here.

The bottom.

He was "New Fish", or "New Meat". Whatever the  
Prisoners or the Guards wanted to call him. The only  
thing that surprised him was that there were demons in  
here, too.

Some looked mostly human and a few you would never  
think of calling human. Some were prisoners, some  
lived in the lower levels and only came up at night,  
and the night shift Guards looked the other way when  
they did.

So what if a Prisoner went missing every now and then?  
The demons had learned over time which ones would be  
missed and would not.

Xander quickly found that the demon population were  
kind of scared of him. His time with Buffy had done  
him well. Some would leave little things around his  
cell, a stone, a bit of cloth, or a book, evidently as  
a peace offering or something.  
The books were his new treasure. He spent a lot of  
time reading. The books were everything from tech  
manuals to romance novels. And since he was not  
allowed in the general population, first because his  
age second, and second, he WAS on death row, he had  
plenty of time to read.

His time with Giles also came in handy, since most of  
the books the demons had were not in English. Many  
were, but there were also some in Spanish, French,  
Latin and more, even a few in Demon languages.

He started to sneak some food out of the mess hall to  
trade with some of groups. They always looking for  
Ketchup, Mustard and other condiments, so he could  
trade for other things. He had a good deal going with  
them, even a face to face meeting with a few.

Buffy would come out, once a month, with Willow. They  
would talk about school and new friends. He would  
hear about the new big bad. One time, Buffy came by  
herself. She had just gotten beaten by a Vamp called  
Sunday. What kind of name is Sunday?

He'd had to give her a pep speech. She came all the  
way to his PRISON so he could make her feel better?  
God, I love her but could she not see that he needed  
a pep talk?

He needed something from them. Anything, some  
contact, something from outside the walls. So after  
his pep talk, she left to stake her Vampire.

"Buffy, you're my hero." God, he couldn't believe she  
fell for that. How corny can you get?

I think I could even talk my way into her pants  
lately, he mused later.

Then there was Willow.

She would show up, sometimes with Oz, most times not.  
Oz seems to be moving away from him or Willow, he  
wasn't sure which. But he found out about Willow  
breaking up with Oz a few days later. Oz had cheatedon her? He couldn't really believe it!

A few weeks later at Willow's and Buffy's dorm room.

"I mean, I'm going through something," Willow said to  
Buffy. "I just don't see why he was getting down on  
me."

"Giles just worries," Buffy told her hurting friend.  
"Spells can be dangerous. It doesn't mean he thing  
you're a bad witch.

"I am a bad witch" Willow said sulkily.

"No, you're a good witch," Buffy insisted.

"I'm not kidding anyone. If I had any real power, I  
could have made Oz stay with me."

"Will, you wouldn't have wanted him to stay!"

"And I didn't have the guts to do the spell on Veruca.  
And my "I will it so" spell went nowhere."

"I think you're being too hard on yourself."

"If I was any good, I could have Xander here with us."

Suddenly, with those words, there was Xander standing  
behind them.

The big problem he was having right then was that he  
was in the showers when Willow has called him there.  
Soap was running in his eyes and he knew he was not in  
the showers anymore, but exactly where he was, he  
couldn't tell, so he kept his mouth shut, 'til he did  
know were he was.

"I mean I have tried spell after spell on that place  
and nothing. It's shielded or something. But now he's  
locked up there 'til he dies."  
And with those words, Xander was gone.

Buffy looked over he shoulder, thinking she had seen  
some movement, but there was nothing back there, now.

She got up looked at the floor.

"Uh, Willow how did the floor get wet?"

Back at the Prison.

Xander was standing in the shower, the other prisoners  
standing around looking at him as he reappeared.

Was that Buffy and Willow talking? They had me out,  
then put me back in? he asked himself. A little rage  
started to build then, but there was nothing he could  
to right Then so shrugged and finished his shower,  
While the others moved a little farther from him.

Xander's POV

The next day I was sent to the Chapel to help out.  
The Priest that we have there always gives me the  
creeps. While I was helping clean up before Sunday  
Mass, I found some dried blood on one of the Altars.  
It turned out that someone was doing some kinda of  
Black Mass in here. And from the way the Priest kept  
looking at me, I pretty much knew who was leading  
them.

For the life of me, I can never figure out why this  
kind of stuff follows me. I mean, I go to jail and  
still find evil all around me.

The following Monday, the Warden called me to her  
Office. Once there, I was told I would start working  
in the wood shop. The prison had a few craft shops  
here and there, mostly to help repair the prison  
itself.  
But me, I get to build stuff. It seems that if you're  
on death row, people will buy whatever you make,  
whether you're good at it or not.

I was to make boxes, chairs, toys, and then the prison  
would sell them and use the money for things here. I  
would take a small cut for myself to use at the store  
in here, to get some extra stuff, like smokes, gum and  
TWINKIES. I have been in here for almost a year and  
in all that time, no Twinkies!

That's what got me to work for them. God, am I that  
easy?

A month are so later, Larry had his big interview.

20/20.

They had a big show done on me. But they never asked  
any of my friends for interviews or anything. The  
whole show was about how I was born bad.

The Interviews were only of people that had gone to  
school with me. Most only remembered Hyena-me and a  
few had seen me at the Bronze fighting when the bad  
guys were there. Larry went on and on about how I was  
gay. The guy is definitely covering something. Even  
I could tell, just watching the TV. The show really  
made me the talk of the town, so to speak, for a  
while.

Even had a prisoner hit on me. Turned him down, I  
don't go that way.

Later, I found out that Buffy was hooked up with some  
sort of Government thingy. I hadn't seen her in a  
while, and she had came out talking about her new  
Boyfriend "Parker", and I Told her that it sounded  
like she was moving to fast with him. I mean, Angel,  
she took over a year to get to know. But this guy  
Parker, she's getting ready to jump his bones on the  
second date.

After that, she didn't come out as much. Then she  
stopped coming for a while. Then she had a newboyfriend. Willow had told me that the new one was  
better. Riley, Miley, something like that. The guy  
sounded like a stiff. Buffy never wanted to talk  
about him with me.

And from what I have heard, she just about pushed  
Giles out of her life, too. Seems little Miss Slayer  
could only have so many friends. And it felt like I  
was on the way to the dump. When we talked, she would  
stop and cut herself off about things. Then I would  
have to wait for Willow to fill me in, later.

It was 4 months before I found out that she had had a  
demon as a roommate. Why were they not telling me  
things like that? I don't know, but it just seems to  
be one more push.

Then there was the Government place Buffy was working  
at...I found that out from some demon here. It seems  
that Buffy was with a Team that caught some of its  
tribe, and he had asked me if I could find out about  
them. They were a non-hostile tribe. Hell, they  
didn't even eat meat. What they did eat I won't say;  
just that they lived around sewage treatment plants,  
and I'll leave it at that.

When I asked Buffy about it, she freaked. Said I had  
people spying on her.

How? I don't know. Hey, I am in JAIL here. But she  
cut it short and said any demon that she caught were  
bad guys. End of it. Then she left.

The next day, Angel came to see me.

Now that was unexpected. We never really liked each  
other. I didn't even respect the vampire very much.  
Hell, he went after a child, a 16 year old girl. If he  
had been mortal, he would have been in jail with me  
for that.

Other than that, I didn't really have much to think  
about him. We did talk, and he told me about what  
Cordy and Wesley were doing, and what he was up to.  
And to thank me for this.

Almost a year.

And he was the first to say it. Just, Thanks.

Not a big word, but it has a lot of weight.

I almost forgave him for everything. But, hey, still  
a Vamp.

He knows how I feel about him and he understands. I  
really don't think he forgives himself too much. But  
we do understand one another. That's worth more to  
either one of us than I can put into words.

Now Willow does understands me, but doesn't  
UNDERSTANDS me. She can't see the true self that is  
me and understand I what I would do for her and Buffy.  
Even here in prison, she doesn't really understand  
that I cannot turn my back on her. She is my sister in  
more ways than one. I held her hand so many times,  
and she had held mine.

But she's moved away from me since I was put in here.  
The last time she was here, she kinda freaked at the  
tattoos I had gotten. One was a spider web on the  
elbow. Then a broken hart with a stake through it on  
my left arm. And over it, I had the words 'To your  
own self be true' written in Spanish.

Joe, the prisoner that put them on was an artist. He  
did tattoos for a living before he got sent here. He  
was on death row with me. He had killed four people  
in a bar fight. Never get drunk with a gun, is what  
he always said. He was given the needle three days  
ago.

Back to Willow.

She had gotten with someone and wouldn't say who.  
Just that she was happy and didn't want to jinx  
anything. I found out from some of the demons here  
that she was now seeing a girl... That took me a  
while to think about. Willow, Gay? What about Oz?Hell, what about me? She'd had had a crush on me for  
years. Then off to Oz. Why wouldn't she tell me?

I was in the yard the other day. They let us death  
row convicts out there once a week. The yard was  
divided down the middle with a chain link fence topped  
by Razor wire. One side, males; the other, females.  
I looked at just about the only females I will ever  
see. Guards don't count.

The Female Guards will never talk to you; talk at you,  
but never to you.

Then I thought I saw Faith. She had her back to me,  
so I couldn't be sure. They were going in on their  
side as we were coming out in on ours. I don't know;  
it could have been Faith.

No one had even told me if she had woken up. I had  
gone to see her the day before I was arrested and left  
her a little bear. But other than that, I didn't know  
anything.

That was also the day that I met Laslow.

I was taken to the Prison Library. Not a fun place;  
like a maze and mine field and cave, all rolled into  
one. Books were everywhere, piled high on shelves and  
tables. Most leaning almost to fall.

They needed new shelves and I was to build them.  
While measuring the shelves, I noticed the librarian.  
Mainly, 'cause his shadow didn't stay still; it moved  
around like it was watching everything in the room.

After a while, he noticed that I noticed and started  
to look at me. I had never felt something like that.  
It was almost like he saw my soul. After a few days  
of working in here with him, I found out he was not a  
prisoner.

And unlike the guards, he was not working for the  
state. He had been here for a while; he had just  
moved in.  
I found out, later, when we talked that he was hiding  
from the Council. At one time, he had been a Watcher,  
and he had helped his slayer out of the Cruciamentum,  
and for that, she was killed and they were hot on his  
heels. He decided to hide out here. Free food and a  
roof and books. And it had all worked out. He had  
even found some very good spells in some of the older  
books.

After a few months, he started to teach me some of the  
spells. I was evidently a natural for them. When I  
told him most of the Spells go ka-pow on me, I was  
told that I just needed to find my type of magic.  
Everyone has a type of magic, some big, some small. I  
was just too tuned into Shadow Spells for anything  
else to work.

Now Shadow Magic is not all that powerful, but you can  
work with shadows, like seeing in the dark things, and  
other things like that, but not much else. But being  
into tune with it like I was, I could do things he  
never could do at all.

Later, I had used one of my favorite lines from Star  
Wars.

"Now the student surpasses the Master."

He never did figure out where that had came from.

The next day, the riot started.

And I never saw him again


	4. Chapter 4

The Riots.

Rateing: R (i would guess)

this is the next story in the Cowboy story line.

its for fun. dont own any of it. Someone else own all  
of it.

plese read, and I hope you enjoy.

The morning of the riots started out just like any  
other. Mail Call.

I got my usual amount of junk: lawyers wanting to get  
me off; People wanting my story so they can make money  
off of me; religious wanting to pray for my Soul; some  
groups that wanted me to die now; and a few wanted me  
to back them, because I was in jail for a National  
Conspiracy.

Then there were a few from some women out there that  
just wanted to save me. Some even sent nude pictures  
to me. I kept them. I can always trade for something  
when I get tired of looking,. Which won't be for a  
while. And, hey, still a teenager here.

Most of the rest went right into the trash.

Then to the real letters. One from Willow, Giles and  
Buffy. As I read them, they all sounded like a  
good-bye. It took a minute, but then I put it  
together.

A new Big Bad, and they were going to fight it.

And I was here. I could not help them.

From what I had put together lately, it had something  
to do with the Government place Buffy was working  
with. She had stopped talking about it when I asked  
about the demon clan, last time she was here. But  
something big was happening. Because Little MissSlays-a-lot had called Giles in to help.

Then, reading his letter, the bombshell had hit.

SPIKE!

They had Spike helping them. The vampire that had  
almost killed me on numerous times, that had trapped  
me and Willow in the hole after he had all but caved  
in the side of my head to force Willow into casting a  
love spell for him. Now, he was part of the Scoobies.

Well, they didn't come out and say it. But he was  
there. He was living in Giles' home. How and why I  
don't know. Just, I was here and NO ONE said anything  
about it. Giles just slipped it in with his letter,  
like I should have know all along.

"Oh, no big deal, Spike is helping us and he's been  
living with me for the last few weeks."

God, it makes him so mad. That was important. How  
many times did they push me over the years? " So  
Xander could be safe. So Xander could have a normal  
life." Fuck a normal life. His home life was hell;  
he wanted to do something good, something that helped  
the world. And if he died doing it, he wanted it to  
mean something. 

And when he did do something, the only person to ever  
say 'thanks' was the person he hated most. Angel had  
said thanks. 

How did the others thank him? By not telling him  
stuff. Little stuff, big stuff - it didn't matter!  
He wanted to know. 

He was going to die in here and he just wanted to know  
about their lives. Nothing more. Maybe help them out  
with a word or two, listen to them bitch and moan  
about things. To hear about LIFE.

Locked up, it was no life. He could tell you what he  
would be doing tomorrow at 12:00 PM for the rest ofhis Life. It would not change for him. His life from  
now on would be the same thing over and over. 'Til he  
died, either from the needle, or from another  
prisoner, or maybe even old age. Which he hoped that  
would never happen. To be locked in here, forever,  
would be a worse hell than anything else.

He sat down an wrote a letter to Willow, and he put  
all his anger in to it. Let her know how the way they  
were acting made him feel and that, if it didn't  
change, he would stop seeing them when they came. He  
would much rather be alone then pushed aside and only  
get snips from them, his sisters.

After breakfast, they were being moved back to the  
Cells when it happened.

Across the yard, something had happened in the Women's  
lock down. Guards were running everywhere. He could  
hear screams and shouts.

Then he felt it - a cold evil moving across the yard.  
he hadn't felt that since the night he spent with  
O'Toole and the Zombies when the Hellmouth had opened.

An evil was moving around there, causing the guards to  
start becoming violent. Prisoners were starting to be  
affected, too. Then the fights were on.

Guards dropped the clubs and pulled guns.

The sharpshooters in the towers started to fire. They  
were shooting anyone, guards, prisoners, employees,  
indiscriminately. Right then and there, he knew he  
was dead. No one would get out alive down here. This  
would be one big cover up.

In tower number 2

Mike Jenkins was sighing his rifle again and again,  
dropping anyone that he could see. They were all  
after him. They all wanted to kill him. The body of  
his partner was laying in a pool of his own bloodbehind him.

He just sighted and fired, sighted and fired. One of  
the other guard towers shot at him, and he just turned  
and fired back at him, killing the other guard, who  
fell out of the tower with his rifle. Then he turned  
back to the yard.

Through one of the windows, he saw a young man, moving  
in the hall way.

That's the Sunnydale bomber, he thought. He's  
going to get something to kill me. 

He sighted in on Xander's head, aiming through the  
window, the crosshairs fixed on his ear.

And then he pulled the trigger.

The bullet stuck Xander in the neck, smashing his  
voice box, doing all kinds of damage as it tore  
through him. Blood shot out from the wound and poured  
out of his mouth and nose. He could feel it, sliding  
down his throat. 

Xander crashed to the ground. He could feel his life  
leaving his body. He had always thought that a  
vampire would have got him; then, after being sent  
here, the needle. It was kind of funny that it was a  
bullet.

It was night time when the Riots had finally settled  
down, and the News crews appeared.

The death tolls were in the hundreds. It was one of  
the deadliest riots in history. The prison just went  
mad. It was later blamed on gases that had seeped up  
from some natural caverns under the prison.

They used a small field outside the prison as a  
morgue. People were going from one body to the next,  
trying to ID most of them. A few inmates had been  
beaten so badly, you couldn't tell they were human,anymore.

One of the Techs was leaning over Xander's body when  
it moved. The tech looked again. There were small  
bolts of what looked like lighting running around his  
neck, the same spot where a hole had been, a few  
seconds before.

Then, Xander took his first breath in his new life.   
He sat up and looked around. The tech was just  
sitting on his knees beside him, staring in disbelief.

"Uh, hi?" Xander said.

The tech's eyes just rolled into his head and he  
slowly fell over, onto his side.

Looking around, Xander saw he was outside.

Free.

"Well, Xand-man, looks like it's time to move," he  
told himself.

There was no way he would go back in.

But where should he go?

The Gang needed help, but they apparently had it now  
with Spike. Did they need him? He didn't think so.

And once the notice that he was gone was released, the  
cops would be all over Sunnydale. If he returned, he  
would do just what he had wanted not to do: bring  
trouble to Buffy and the Scoobies.

Looking around into the dark, he called up his Shadow  
powers. He needed to get away. The mountains to the  
south looked close enough.

He couldn't follow the road out; it was full of cops  
and reporters. 

As he stood, he noticed that there was a bloody shirt  
sticking to his skin. No way would he have made itthat way with no one seeing him.

Okay, so the desert it was.

Sunnydale.  
Three days later.

Adam was gone. The same day that Xander had died, the  
Scoobies had killed him. They had used the Joining  
Spell. But it was not a full joining; it didn't have  
the Heart to work properly.

They had tried to use Riley, but the spell had just  
washed over him. From what Giles had found out, the  
First Slayer had helped them, or it would not have  
worked at all. But it had, and now, Adam was gone.

Whichever government organization Walsh had worked  
for, now had the parts. Riley has been busy with them  
for a few days, clearing the mess. Buffy was planning  
to ask him tonight if he could help get Xander out.

She had intended to ask a few weeks ago, but Xander  
had asked about the Demons that she helped them  
capture. How had he known about them, she still  
didn't know. Xander always seems to find out things  
you don't want or don't know he knows.

Then there was the whole Walsh thing and, after that,  
Adam. She hadn't time to do it. But tonight she was  
making time.

They had heard about the riot there, but everyone knew  
Xander was fine. After all, he could hide with the  
best of them.

The door to the Magic Shop opened, and Willow ran in,  
crying. Tara was right behind her, with a confused  
look on her face.

She held two letters. One was open.  
"He hates us." Willow said, before breaking down in  
tears and throwing herself at Buffy. Anya, who had  
just started to work behind the counter, watched on.

"Is this the start of Lesbian sex?" she asked

Even the crying Willow stopped to look at her.

"What? Sex is something everyone talks about; it's on  
TV magazines. They have some good ones at the book  
story down the street, it even has some with nude men  
inside."

"Not now, Anya," Buffy said with a huff, and then  
added, under her breath, "Hopefully, never."

"Xander hates us," Willow started again.

"How can you say that?"

"Read his letter."

Buffy started to read it, her heart dropping lower  
with each sentence. Some of the things in there - he  
knew what she had been doing with Riley, about her  
Demon roommate, everything. He even knew about Tara  
and Spike. He had felt pushed aside; after all he had  
done for them, he had felt like they didn't care for  
him, anymore. All but one of them hadn't even said  
thanks to him. Only Angel.

"We'll go see him tomorrow, Will. We'll get this all  
straightened out."

While Buffy had been reading the letter from Xander,  
Willow had opened the other one. Just as Buffy had  
finished her last sentence, Willow fell to her knees  
on the floor.

Both Tara and Buffy called her name and jumped to help  
her. Willow just sat there after they lifted her up,  
with a dead look in her eyes. She was whispering a  
name.

"Xander."  
Tara knew about Xander from listening to the group  
talk about him. But Willow had never talked to her  
about him. She really wasn't sure if she wanted to  
know him. After all, he was in jail for murder. Not  
just one, but lots of them. He had blown up their  
high school.

Tara knew that Willow and Buffy didn't believe that he  
was bad, but he was still in prison. You don't go  
there ,if you don't do something bad.

While Tara was helping Willow up, Buffy looked at the  
second letter, then gasped as her face went white.

Xander was dead.

They had cremated his body and interred it in a mass  
grave with the other convicts that had died in the  
riots. The Guards' bodies had been shipped to the  
their families, but Xander's had been refused by his  
mom and dad.

Let the State do it, was their response to the prison.  
The letter they'd received was from a lawyer  
representing Xander. In it was his will. He gave  
just about everything to Willow, with a few of his  
Shirts going to Buffy and Cordy.

He thought that since they were always dressed so  
nicely, that they would need something to make them  
feel normal, and that he was still around.

Giles walked out of his Office.

"I just got off the phone with Angel. He was in  
contact with Faith. She was involved in the riots,  
too. Said that a priest inside was working some Dark  
Magic, and it got away from him. She killed him and  
saved several people. They are talking about early  
release for her...

"What's happened," he asked upon seeing Buffy an  
Willow's tear-streaked faces.  
Buffy just handed him the letters and went to sit with  
Willow.

After reading them, he could only say.

"Oh dear..."


	5. Chapter 5

I want to be a Cowboy.

Rating at least R (America)

Xander was arrested after the high school bombing and died in jail. This is the story of what happened next.

Note the ending is from the first story of Cowboy. People wanted to find out how he got there. So now you know, and I will continue the story. Also, I have added a Part that was written by mprattky; thanks for the Add on. I also changed some of the end. Not much, but some.

On the road to Texas.

Why did they make deserts so hot? Xander wondered as he walked across the salt flats. The mountains looked a lot closer than he thought they actually were. Here he was, with no water, just his bloody prison clothes. He had fainted from the heat at lest three times. But every time he awoke, he felt better, just thirsty. His blisters were gone, only to start forming again once he got up. He was getting close to another fainting spell, he could feel it coming. The cramping, the dry mouth.

Then it happened. Xander Harris died for the fourth time due to the heat. 

And when he died, the world changed.

Sunnydale.

Buffy walked out of her mother room. Ever since they had heard about Xander's death, the Scoobies have been a little off. They just didn't have the fun like they used to. Riley was going to take her out tonight; it was the first time in a while that she was getting out just to do something other than slay. They were having some problems lately, due to her not telling him about Xander. He might have been able to pull some strings and get him out, but now it was too late.

"I'm outta here. Riley and I are going to the Movies," Buffy called to her mom as she walked down the hall.

"Okay. Have a good time," Joyce call to her daughter.

"What are you doing here?" Buffy asked, as she walked past an open door.

The young girl turned to look at Buffy, just as her mom called out again.  
"Buffy? If you're going out, why don't you take your sister?"

To which both girls call out. "MOM!"

Back in the desert..

Xander came back to life again, only to pick himself up and continue walking.  
He should make it today. It was only a few more miles. He could make it, no way would he die out here.

He would rub his neck from time to time. He could remember the bullet hitting him and feel the pain. Now, however, it was all gone. Just a small scar was all that was left.

His voice had changed, too. Gone was the voice of the nice guy; now, his voice had deep rasping sound to it. It almost hurt him to talk. Personally, he thought he sounded like Dark Vader with a bad speaker. He had learned about the changes while he talked to himself.

He got closer to the mountains one painful step at a time. After 3 days of walking in the blistering sun, he had found shade. He could not count the times he had fainted out in the flats. Looking back, it kind of reminded him of that Clint Eastwood move 'High Plains Drifter.' It was a barren place out there; no shade, nothing. Just hot. He pulled himself into the small cave and slept.

After a few hours he awoke and took a look around. He could see a small trail leading up the side of the hill he was on, leading farther back into the mountains.

As soon as he got his wind back, he started up the hill. Once at the top, he looked back across the salt flats.

Just walked out of hell, he thought. "I wonder what comes after that?" he said to himself. Looking up the trail from where he stood, he could see a small cabin. There was a car out front, and sitting in front of the house was an old Native American man.

"Oh, a white devil walking out of the desert," he said, watching Xander come closer.

"I am Last Man Standing. This Holy Ground here."

"Uh, I am Xander. Ok, it's Holy ground. Can you help me?"

"How did you survive out there?" the old man asked.

"Don't know if I did," Xander replied rubbing the scar on his neck. For all he knew, this could be hell. It was sure hot enough.

"You come from the prison?"

Xander looked the old man up and down. The truth. This guy wanted the truth. Ok, can't really lie to him, he thought. I'm wearing a prison uniform with dry blood all over the front. 

"Yeah, I was a lifer there. Well at least 'til they put the needle in my arm."

"What were you in for?"

"Would you believe that I helped kill a giant demon snake?"

"Yes, I would." he said with a small head shake.

Six months later.

I know this happen early than most other stuff, I am using a little creative juggling.

Buffy and Willow stood watching the construction crew start to work on the sight of the new Sunnydale Cultural Partnership Center. They were watching Faith as she shoveled dirt out of a hole.

Faith was back. Buffy really didn't know what to do with her. She was on parole and had to hold down a job, and the only one that would hire her had been this construction company. They always needed laborers, and she was strong. She would out-work most of her coworkers, then out-drink them at the bar later, and everyone had a fun time. She just had to blow off steam after work. Something that didn't involve Slaying or a certain red headed witch.

Faith glanced up to see her blonde and redheaded shadows. They followed her around everywhere; she had even found them in the john at a bar one time. God, they needed a life.

She was not going to kill anyone. It was to soon out of prison and no one was high enough on her list. At least not yet, but they were working their way up her list.

She was just going to yell at them to leave her the fuck alone, when the ground gave out under her, dropping her in an buried building. As she hit the ground, a green mist enveloped her.

"Oh, JUST FUCKING GREAT!" Faith screamed, as other workmen yelled down for her not to move and someone was getting a rope to get her out.

Later the next day, Buffy had invited Faith to her Thanksgiving dinner under duress.   
When she had shown up, she looked almost dead. And as the evening progressed, they found out why.

"You mean some ghost guy has given me syphilis?" Faith asked.

"Yeah," Willow said trying hard not to grin. Faith with a STD - justice was being served big time as far as she was concerned.

"Laugh it up, Red," Faith started in.

"Hey guys, there's something in the paper about Xander," Dawn said as she looked up toward the fight. And she didn't want to have to hear another one to day.

The following was written, by mprattky. I have inserted it to add this story. I did not change any of his work. 

Associated Press Feed

Xander Harris Death Penalty Defense Fund set up.

June 21, 2000, Sunnydale California

The American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, California Coalition for Compassionate Justice and the Friends (Quaker) Committee to Abolish the Death Penalty held a press conference yesterday on the steps of the Sunnydale California courthouse to announce the creation of the Xander Harris Innocence Defense Endowment fund. The Fund is to support the defense of individuals charged with capital offenses within California, including providing expert review of evidence being used in any such case.

The fund is named after Alexander "Xander" Harris, the Sunnydale teenager who was convicted for murder arising out of the explosion at the Sunnydale High School graduation in May 1999 and sent to death row.

In late May, 2000, independent journalist Gerald Posner, working on a book on the explosion, discovered lab reports from the FBI Crime Lab that established that the explosion was actually caused by a natural gas leak in the basement below the school library, instead of an explosive device planted in the library as alleged by the prosecution at the trial.

Posner conducted an interview with the lab expert who conducted the tests. She indicated that she was unaware the items tested were involved in the Sunnydale explosion at the time. She said she had forwarded the reports to the agent who requested the tests, Special Agent Fox Mulder, who was overseeing the investigation of the explosion.

"You mean they actually put someone on death row in that case? Oh My God," Rebecca Nalley, the lab expert, was quoted as saying when she realized what case the material had been from. "If I had known it was in a death penalty case, I would have rung so many alarm bells, my supervisor would have gone deaf."

The story in the June 4, 2001 edition of the Village Voice, also published in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times, led to calls for an investigation into the circumstances of the conviction of Harris.

Lilah Morgan, the attorney for Harris at his trial, declared that she had not been provided the test results and that if she had, "An innocent child would not have been sent to death row!"

California Governor Gary Davis ordered an immediate investigation and declared he would have unconditionally pardoned and released Harris from prison if it had been within his power.

However, in a tragic turn of events, Harris had been killed in a prison riot the week before the story was published. He was shot by a prison guard who himself is now charged with multiple counts of murder.

Public reaction to the story has been swift and dramatic. Governor Davis did sign a posthumous pardon for Harris and formally apologized to Anthony and Jessica Harris, the parents of Alexander Harris. President Clinton signed a Presidential pardon also and called for a review of the tragic events which killed an innocent child.'

Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Louie Freeh have both traveled to Sunnydale California to personally apologize to the Harris family and promise that a full investigation would be undertaken. The Harris family announced they are consulting with an attorney about possible legal action.

Public opinion polls in California and nationwide show that support for the death penalty had dropped dramatically since the revelation of the test results. The California Attorney General announced that a criminal investigation is underway into the actions of the Sunnydale District Attorney, Police and the FBI. The United States Attorney in Los Angeles has convened a Federal Grand Jury to investigate the matter, subpoenaing records from the court case.

Sunnydale District Attorney Roy Lambert has publicly stated he was unaware of the lab test results and said he will undertake his own criminal investigation concentrating on the actions of the FBI.

FBI Director Freeh, who himself is under fire for the events, has announced that Agent Mulder has been suspended pending an internal investigation and has refused to rule out possible criminal charges. He has also promised a full review of procedures at the FBI crime lab.

The endowment fund, funded by private donations, in addition to funding expert review of physical evidence, will also fund scholarships for law students who want to work as public defenders after law school and also provide salaries for those who want to specialize in defending death penalty cases

Around the same time.

Xander was wandering the back road in Texas. He would hitch or walk from town to town, getting work were he could, mostly day labor, or he would sometimes steal something he needed. He didn't like it, but there was no way he was going back to that place. He had spent a lot time with Last Man back on the Reservation. But it was too close. Someone would have found him so late one night he moved on. It had taken a few more days than he expected, but soon he would be in Mexico. Then he would send a letter to his girls let them know he was still kicking. But right know it was not too smart.

He had been walking all day. He had stopped off for a burger or something at this greasy spoon, when he felt it for the first time...a head ache beyond belief. he had never felt anything like it before.

Then, when he looked around, he saw him. A tall man in a duster and cowboy hat. When he looked at him, the headache went away. He was all leather and steel, and he could see what looked like an old peacemaker in his belt and a Bowie knife on the other side.

He shook his head toward the door.

Once outside.

"Boy, you're in my territory," he said with dry voice.

"Sorry, I'll just be going then," he said, starting to move away.

"Do you know what you are?"

"Uh. A boy?" Xander asked the dark man. He had learned over the years it does you well not to piss off someone bigger and meaner than you.

"New, huh? This should be easy." With that, the guy pulled out a sword from inside his duster.

"O Shit!" Xander said as he moved away from the man as fast as he could, running down an alley to side of the greasy spoon. The man went after him, and the fight was on. Xander was good; years with Buffy had taught him a lot, plus his time in Prison. But this guy was better. He was easily wining the fight.

"Boy, I'm going to take your head. Just give up I'll go easy on you."  
"Fuck you!"

Then Xander did something that he could never take back. He used his magic to kill.

Ludlow had taught him that only evil uses magic to kill. Magic was never meant to used that way, only to protect. And now he was going to use it to kill this guy.

He called up the Shadow Magic that he had been taught. He looked at the man, and felt the power in him grow and flow. It had gotten stronger after he had died in the Riot at the prison.

The sword was on its way to his head. He let the magic loose. Shadows shot from around them and wrapped around the man in a cocoon of night. Xander moved as fast as he could and the sword just missed his head. He spun around and knocked the sword away from the man, then jumped on it as the man pulled his pistol and pointed toward the sound of Xander moving. Reflexively, Xander picked up the sword and swung it with all his strength, cutting the head from the man.

Dropping to his knees, he started to breath again. Then he felt a tingle at the back of his neck. Turning to look, he saw the Alley was alive with lighting, and a lighting bolt flew from the man, striking him. He felt like he was on fire.

And then the memories started to flow into him. All the things the guy had done. He was at Andersonville in the Civil War. He had starved the prisoners there. He had raped and burned his way across the Southwest for over 100 years. And the evil that was in him didn't want to leave. It clung to him, becoming part of him.

When it was over, Xander pulled himself up. Looking down at the body, he started to pull the clothes from it. He would need them. Plus, they looked cool.

He strapped on the belt and gun and put the cutlass back under the duster. He reached into his pockets and pulled out a set of keys. They went to the motorcycle outside.

Well, guess I have wheels now. Just need money. 

With that thought, a memory flowed forward. There was someone in Houston that always looking for a problem solver.

Getting on the bike, he decided, Next stop, Houston. 


	6. Chapter 6

I want to be a cowboy chapter 4

This story has some has drugs used, also unconsensual sex acts nothing to graphic,( I don't do graphic at this time. Maybe later.)

rated HEAVY R America scale.

The Student

Houston had been great. 

Yeah, right.

I had lasted there for a few months. 

Found the job, got some money. Got shot by the person paying me, and ended up killing her.

The job was very straight forward. She was the second wife, and she wanted to keep all the money. Both her new husband and stepson wanted keep the money, too. She had tried to sleep with both, but that had not gone well.

It would come out, probably sooner than later, and then she would have lost it all. She wanted a way out that would let her keep all the money, so she hired me to kill them.

But what I didn't know was that the bitch had another lover on the side, and used him to kill me so there would be no loose strings and so she wouldn't have to pay me.

What a surprise on their faces when they saw me again. Let's just say I got my money, and the bitch won't be getting much fun out of her boyfriend.

After that, I took off. I needed a break; someone shooting you does that.

And I always wanted to see the French Quarter.

Sunnydale last month.

Buffy and Faith were sitting on a bench in the back yard of the Revello drive home, Buffy having just finished looking through all the bushes there for more of the nerds' cameras.  
Last night had been very bad. Spike was seen screwing Anya at the Magic Box. Both the Slayer had know for a while that she and Giles were getting together on the side, but Giles had kept it low key. He really didn't want it talked about so they hadn't said anything. And who really wanted to talk about Giles' sex life, anyway?

The big thing was that Spike had been sleeping with both the Slayers behind each other's back.

It had all came out last night. How Spike would patrol with one or the other, then end up back at his crypt for some one on one with them. There was even some sex talk from him about getting both of them in bed. When they confronted him, he was all 'Hey, Vampire here.'

Then it finally hit them - he was. A vampire.

There was no soul there, just a chip that was the only control they had. But Spike could manipulate with the best. He had both of the broken Slayers dancing to his tune, believing every thing he had said. He'd had them taking out anyone that he had owed money or kittens to. Clem had let that slip one time while talking to Faith. It was said in the demon world that they were his hit men. You paid Spike or his Slayers would get you.

Buffy was still nursing some of the bruising she had gotten the night before from Warren, the Super-murdering-nerd. Faith and Buffy had talked about Spike and as they did, it had all came out. How, after the Scoobies had brought her back, she had felt alone, lost, and how the only one that seem to understand was Spike. He would listen and talk to her.

Faith had felt the same way, ever since she had gotten out of prison. It had taken a long time to get where she could talk to anyone. But Spike had talked to her, like he was just someone else that was looking to make up for the evil that they had done. 

Too bad it was a lie - he just wanted to get in their pants. He was the master of the smooth talk. He had the chip, so he couldn't kill humans, but he was still evil. Later, while talking to Dawn, Buffy had seen him laying out the ground work for her, too. He was always going to have some girl around. He always had - Dru, then Harmony, then Buffy and Faith, plus playing Anya, and then he was working on Dawn.

"He is SO staked when I see him again," Buffy said, really pissed off.

"Right there with you, girlfriend," Faith said. It had pissed her off just a little more than Buffy; she had had guys screw around on her before. But she had trusted Spike. That's what got her. She had trusted him.

"I'm kind of glad Xander isn't here to see this," Buffy said,

"Huh?" Buffy was bringing up the Taboo subject here. They never talked about him. She knew he had died in the riots, it was all over the news. There was even some rumors that some of the bodies that were cremated were not human. Even a few others that one of them had gotten up and walked away. Those were smashed very fast by the new prison warden. The old one had been attacked and raped by one of prisoners. She would never come back to the prison after that. Not that Faith blamed the woman. Who would want to locked up with the people that did that to her?

Just then, Warren smashed in the back gate, a pistol in his hand, aimed at the Slayers.

"You think you can just do that to me?" he ranted. "You think I'd let you get away with that? Think again!" Then, with a laugh just the other side of sane,. he started to fire wildly at them. Buffy shoved Faith out of the way.

As Warren ran off, still firing into the air over his shoulder as he went, there was the sound of broken glass. But Faith was too busy looking at where Warren had gone, in case he came back.

Upstairs.

Tara and Willow had just gotten dressed and were looking at each other. They had been watching Faith and Buffy, to make sure that no fists were going to be thrown. After what had come out last night, they wanted to make sure. Willow had walked back into the room to get her bag and then they were going to head out for some food. As a couple again.

Tara had turned her back to the window, when suddenly, there was some pops outside.

Fireworks? Willow had thought.

She turned to look at her lover when a sudden splatter of red shot across her red blouse.

Later

Tara started to breath again. It was dark. No one was around. She was covered in blood.

"O, God," she said as she remembered what had happened. "I have became one of them."

Everyone was wrong, she WAS a demon. She needed to get away before she hurt anyone. She grabbed some of her stuff and was out the door as fast as she could. She didn't want to see any of her friends - they would be in danger from her. She didn't know what she was anymore. But if her family was right, she would be dangerous to everyone.

At the bus station, she got the first bus out. New Orleans. She had to get away. She didn't want to hurt anyone. She would find a place to help control it, some place that would not let it out. A place that could punish her for the evil that she was.

On the outskirts of Sunnydale  
Just as Tara was getting off the bus in New Orleans.

Willow was standing on the Cliff side, power flying from her hands, pouring into what was left of a demonic temple, when she heard someone.

She thought she had all the Scoobies busy right then. Looking up, she saw a surprising sight. There was Faith, walking toward her.

"Hey, Red. Whatcha doin'?"

"Get out of here, Faith."

"Ah, no can do."

"Faith, get out of here. Go find a fast fuck. The world is going to end in a few hours."

Faith just stood there.

"Can't do it. Made a promise to myself a while back."

"What? That you'll die trying to save the world?"

"Well, yeah, seeing as I helped almost end it one time."

Willow sent a bolt of magic at Faith. It lifted her off her feet and threw her to the ground at the base of the temple.

"Well, girl's got game," Faith said as she slowly dragged herself up.

"Look, Red, Tara would not have wanted you to do this." Willow kept the power flowing, so Faith decided to use her trump card. "Neither would Xander."

Willow whipped her head around. "How would a whore like you know what he would want or not want?"

"Hey, the guy tried to save me when I was on the wrong side. He would not want you to be doing this, and you know it."

"Well he's not here, now is he?" Willow looked at the Dark Slayer with black eyes.  
This is so gonna sting, Faith thought to herself.

"No, Red, he's not. Just me and you and big and ugly over there."

"So you need to leave, don't you."

"No," Faith said moving in front of Willow, "can't do it."

"Then you're going to die here."

"Maybe, Red." Faith slowly reached behind her back. Her fingers were on the knife she had back there. "Maybe. But do you want Xander to see how your acting? Or Tara? Both of the them would not like to see you like this and you know it."

Willow let out a growl and sent another bolt of magic into the dark haired Slayer. Blood spilled out from small cuts on her chest and arms.

"Girl, that hurt, but still doesn't change a thing," Faith said.

"You can't stop this."

"Yeah, but I gotta try. You haven't been a friend to me in a while, but you were his friend and he tried to help me, so now I'm returning the favor."

"This is your plan? Telling me that some guy that hated me wouldn't want me to do this?" Willow said scornfully.

"Well, I was just going to shoot you or cut your throat, but, hey, a girl can change her mind."

"Making jokes? Too bad that would be your last."

"Red, one thing before you kill me. He never hated you."

"You don't know anything!"

"Yes, I do, Red. He went to that hell hole for you, he spent God knows how many hours watching the walls in that place. Just for you. He could have gotten a lighter sentence at anytime, just by naming some of you guys.

"But he didn't. He took it all for you."

As Faith talked the power from Willow was slowly dying down from a huge flow to a small trickle.

"Hey, you're in pain right know and no one knows how bad it is. And your doing something that is end of the world bad. But evil and bad, I will still stand here for him. It's the least I could do. I couldn't save him in that hell hole. Hell, didn't even know he was in there. But if I had acted just a little faster, he might still be alive."

Willow just looked at Faith, her anger withdrawing from her.

"Why Faith? WHY!"

"Just like the saying - Shit happens. It happens to good people and bad. What you do with it is what life is about. You going to sink in it or are you going fertilize your flowers?"

"It Hurts. He hated me. Tara...we had just made up, and now she's gone, too. Everyone I love leaves. Oz, Xander, Tara. Even Buffy leaves. But we keep bringing her back. And look at the pain we caused her doing that. She slept with Spike, instead of talking to us. We...I hurt her. There is so much pain, I just want it to end."

Willow started to cry.

"I know it sucks. I wish I could stop it but I can't. Only you can. But ending the world is not the answer. We both know that. Neither one of them would want you do this. They both love you and would not want you to do something this wrong. Don't let the dark win. Xander tried with me, but I didn't listen. Please don't make the same mistake I did."

Willow only cried harder, and Faith slowly put her arms around the witch, who fell to her knees letting out a heartbroken scream and her tears. Faith watched as the black veins slowly withdrew and the red bled back into her hair.

Thank you, god, Faith thought as she slowly dropped the dagger from her hand, unseen by Willow.

It had been close. If she could not have been turned back, Faith didn't want to think about what she had almost done. The ghost of a dead man had been watching over her today. If it had been anyone else, Faith would have killed without a second. Buffy couldn't kill humans. Faith, on the other hand, could and would to save people. It was an easy choice for her. She would still do anything for that ghost that had tried so long ago to save her.

"He never hated you," Faith began. "You're his Willow, one of his girls. He would always watch out for you."

That only caused Willow to cry more.

"Come on. Let's go home, Red," Faith said as she pulled the redhead to her feet.

When they got back to the Revello Drive home, Willow had another shock. Tara's body was gone.  
Their room had been ransacked and some of Tara's belongings were gone. They searched for her and found nothing. And nothing was all they ever found. Willow was so drained she could not even cast a small spell that would have tracked her down. And all through it, a strange friendship was forming between the redheaded witch and the Dark Slayer. They would call each other names one minute, then hug the next. They were there for each other.

When the nights were long and the dark was wearing heavy, they would talk about things. Stuff that they both understood that Buffy would never understand. They had killed and enjoyed it. They had done things to the human body that non one should know about.

And in a way, Buffy did understand. They never made her feel left out; she understood there were some things she could not understand. And they slowly crawled out of the dark places that they had been in.

The three against the world. 

The Sister Slayers and the Red Witch.

New Orleans.

Xander had been in the French Quarter for about a week, having a blast. He went from club to club, always finding one that was darker than the last. His last stop of the evening was at an S&M club, THE DUNGEON.

It was in an out of the way alley, so that if you didn't know about it, you would never find it. The alley you walked down was small, your shoulders just about rubbing the walls. And at the end was a door that looked like it was right out of some castle somewhere.

Once inside. Xander looked around. He Could see Tops (masters) walking around holding leashes to the Bottoms (slaves). Some were trading them off. There were even house slaves available, just people off the street that wanted to topped.

One of the House Bouncers walked up to ask what was Xander's flavor, but one look from Xander and he knew Xander was a top. After a few drinks and laughing at what was going on, he over heard some of the men at the bar talking about the Back Room.

It seems there was a girl back there taking on anyone. She didn't even have a safe word. Just anyone that wanted her she would go do and do anything. One of the guys said he had saw her almost die one time, she was choking so badly when someone had wrapped his hands around her neck, then asked for more when he finished. She was going to die unless the Management did something.

Oh, well this getting boring any way, Xander thought. You can only watch someone get spanked so many times before it gets old. 

So he got up and headed to the Back Room. It was up a stairway and at the top was a locked door. When he knocked on it, a small peek hole open in it.

"Yeah?"

"I am here to see the specials." It was the password to get in. He had found out about it from the same drunk that told him about this place.

The door swung open and it looked like an orgy going on. There were bodies everywhere. Tied to the rings in the floor; tied to chains that hung from the rafters; chained to the wall. Some of the tops walked around the rooms whipping any of the Bottoms that were not doing what they wanted them to do.

Then he felt it.

The Buzz. There was an Immortal here. He started to look for them, then saw her. A small blonde woman, tied across a wooden horse, bent back almost to the breaking point. She had a guy at both ends and a woman rubbing what looked like a small cattle prod across her tits.

Xander stood back. That's the Immortal? Well, at least she can't die from it. 

As he walked closer to her, he could see drying semen all over her.

What the hell? 

Why one of their kind would do this to themselves was beyond him. When the one in her mouth finished, and the one fucking her completed also, they both withdrew and walked away. The woman that had been rubbing the cattle prod left with them.

Xander moved closer to the woman. She was whispering to herself.

"I'm evil. I need to be punished. I am sorry, Willow."

That name drew back warm memories for Xander, of the good times he had with the redhead, only to have the dark times start to weigh on him.

Did she hurt Willow? Xander wondered to himself.

He bent down and untied the young woman. When he pulled her up to her feet, she looked at him. He knew she could feel the Buzz, but she didn't react to it. There was a dazed look in her eyes. Drugs? He knew that most drugs did not work on Immortals but there were a few magical ones that did.  
"Come on, your leaving now." He looked around but could not see anything that looked like they were even close to being clothing. Just leather straps and chains.

Taking off his duster, he wrapped it around the woman. As he was doing that, one of the bouncers walked up.

"What are you doing with our property?" he said in a threatening voice.

"We're leaving."

"Not with the Club's property."

Xander sighed. "So, that how it's going to be, huh?"

Xander looked closer at the bouncer and a few others walking around the room, then noticed their eyes. They were not human. A demon S&M club?

Why am I not surprised? 

"Look demon, either you let me and the girl go or we will have words."

"She is not leaving. We can get a lot of money from letting you mortals use her."

"You know," Xander said as he moved the woman back to the ground, always keeping his eyes on the demon, "I am really starting to not like you."

"What do I care," the demon seemed to swell up and tower over Xander. "It's time for you to leave, and not come back."

Xander looked at the girl and remember his redheaded sister. He may not have liked her lately, but she still was his sister. He knew he was going to have to fight his way out of here, and he had to get the first strike in or he was going to lose.

Oh well, New Orleans was getting kind of Boring any way. Not nearly enough interesting things to kill. 

As Xander stood up, he pulled his Bowie knife from his boot. He had started carrying it there after the cops stopped him from wearing it at his side. He still didn't understand why they didn't see the cutlass under his duster, but could still see the Bowie.

On the way up, he slashed the demon between the legs with the knife. He could feel it dig into the creature's flesh and blood run down to his hand. The creature let out a scream and grabbed at his mutilated flesh, dropping to his knees.

The room exploded. People started to run away from the crazy man with the knife while the other demons moved in on him.

Shit. Me with only a knife. 

Xander let a smile out then, and the shadows started to move.

Never fight fair. You'll only lose.

The shadows collected around him, then shot out toward the lights. There were small pops and the lights went out one by one.

The demons came to a stop; this was very unexpected. Xander had taken a chance that since these guys looked human that they might have human senses. They did, and stopped short when the room had plunged into darkness.

Xander was at the center of his Power. He knew where each and every one of the demons was in the room. He could easily have just picked the girl up and walked out, but that would be leaving enemies at his back. That was SO not going to happen.

His not paying attention to detail was the reason he got picked up in Sunnydale for the first time. So, when he walked out of the back room, the only things alive from back there were the girl and himself. He walked a few blocks away, to where the party was still going on Bourbon street, where he got a cab back to his hotel. The Driver never looked twice at him. It seemed like he had seen a man take a unconscious woman to his hotel every day.

Got to love New Orleans. Just one big party. 

The next morning.

Tara awoke in a strange place, and the Buzzing was still there.

She remembered it from last night, although she couldn't really remember much of anything. It was all fuzzy. She had gotten off the bus from Sunnydale and gotten a room, then gone out into the streets.

She had gone to a few bars, trying to forget what had happened in Sunnydale. Then she met that guy in O'Toole's. He had the strangest eyes. He had talked to her, gotten her a drink. Then...

Then... I'm here. He drugged me! 

She rolled over and found she was nude and wrapped in a leather duster.

And there was someone sleeping beside her.   
Then she felt something on her body, something she had not felt in a LONG time, ever since she had tried to be straight. She had been with a guy. He had not used a rubber.

Oh god, I could be pregnant! 

She started panic, looking around the room. Nope, no clothes. But there was a huge motorcycle in the room. And the guy sleeping beside her.

I slept with a man. 

She had never done that before. She had had sex with one before, trying to fit in but never slept with him. Of the two, sleeping with the guy was worse than having sex with him.

She was trying to move quietly when a deep voice from beside her stopped her in her tracks.

"I am awake."

"Ahmmm. Hey?"

"You don't remember do you?" Xander said as he rolled over, looking at her.

As she made eye contact with Xander, the Buzz stopped.

What in the world? she thought,

"Remember what?" She thought she knew they had had sex.

"I picked you up at an S&M club last night," Xander said as he looked her in the eyes, trying to see whether or not she knew what she was. He knew that they would have to get out of town soon. The fight last night would have drawn the local demons. They would be after his blood; well, at least the ones from the clan that he had killed.

"W...W...W...What was I doing there?"

"Having a good time?" Xander said with small frown. "Don't you remember anything?"

"I got off the bus ,got a room, then went to a bar. The next thing I know I am here. I think I might have been drugged."

"No, sweet girls like you always get tied up and have three-ways, with strange guys all the time."

"I did WHAT?"

Xander sat back and explained to the small woman what he had seen when he had found her.  
"My god. I. I. I. I'll kill him."

"Why did you want to be punished?" Xander asked to change the subject. He needed to know who or what she had meant when she had said Willow.

"Who said I want to be punished?"

"You did. Last night, you were whispering it over and over." He didn't want to bring up the Willow thing 'til later.

"Oh. I am a demon." She said, looking at him, waiting until he called her crazy and kicked her out.

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am. All the women in my family are." Tears were forming in her eyes. "We thought it was just something they were using to control us. But I really am. I didn't want to hurt anyone, especially not my Willow. And I was shot. I died! How could I live though that if I wasn't a demon?"

When she said 'Willow,' the man moved a little. She looked closer at his face. She had seen it before. Where, she didn't, know but she had seen him.

"You're not a demon, you're something else. You're like me - an Immortal. You'll never change from what you are now. You will be as young ands beautiful as you are now when this county is nothing but a page in dusty old books. You will leave forever unless someone takes your head."

"I don't understand," she said in a small voice.

"I am going to give you three choices. One, you have to find an Immortal and take his head. Then you would gain all his knowledge, move on with your life and live with the rules of the Game.

"Number two, you become my student. I teach you, you become mine 'til you can stand on your own. I will defend you and teach you the rules you need to survive. We will share everything until we separate.

"Number three, and the one you don't want to take. I kill you, take your Quickening and move on. Your strengths become mine."

All the while he spoke to the girl, Tara, he never looked away from her eyes, not giving her one clue as to what he wanted from her. He could have killed her last night or left her where he found her, so she was pretty sure that he didn't want to kill her.

"I.. I.. I.. I'll be your student," she said with a shudder.  
"Good. First things, first. I am the boss. I have need of someone to watch my back. You are now it. If you fail me, I will kill you. And I might make it permanent. Just keep that in mind." The dark side of the Quickening he had taken in Texas rose to the surface.

Tara just shook her head yes. But she was looking his Aura, and saw the darks were at war with the light. He was in a constant state of Flux. He needed help. He had helped her, so now she would help him.

Across the street, a woman sitting in a van lowered a laser microphone, and started to make notes. In the dim light of the van, the flash of a tattoo on the inside of her wrist visible for a few seconds.

England.

Giles had just returned to England from America. He had brought Willow with him to the Coven in Devon. He had seen her a few times over the last few days and talked with her about her friends and about magic. The hardest parts were the talks about Tara, Xander and, it was hard to believe, Faith. The dark-haired Slayer called just about every day. It was a friendship that was hard to define.

Giles was just settling in for some good night's sleep when his phone rang.

"Rupert Giles?" a voice of the phone asked.

"Yes. How can I help you?"

"This is Terri, over in Records. Something has happened." The voice paused for a moment, then continued. "It seems that we have a hacker attack and someone went though your files on Sunnydale."

"What were they after?" Giles asked, thinking that it was about Buffy or Faith. Someone was after one of the Slayers.

"It seems that they copied everything you have on an Alexander L. Harris."

Police Headquarter  
New Orleans French quarters

"Sir, we just got a match on the fingerprints of the murders in the Dungeon. You're not going to believe it."

"Who is it, the President?"  
"No, a dead man walking. Alexander Harris, the Sunnydale Bomber himself."

"What? Isn't he dead?"

"Yep. Or at least supposed to be. Do you want me to call the FBI?"

"No, I will handle it."

After the detective left, the Chief picked up his phone and dialed a number he thought he would never call.

"Sir, we have another one."

"-"

"Ok, got it. I am backing off."

After he hung the phone up, he muttered to himself.

"I hate Lawyers."


	7. Chapter 7

Going west

The next few months were good for Tara, and even Xander was feeling better. They each had someone to talk to about things, something neither had previously.

Even that was limited, however. Small things could set Xander off. Tara soon got used to watching his rages.

The tell-tale sign was his aura. It would be clear and white, the sign of a good person, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, this darkness would appear. When that happened, it was best to be gone for a while. He would start fights, pick on people, and then it would be gone, just as quickly as it showed up.

During one of his good times, he had explained that he had been different, before he took his first head. It seemed like the evil that was part of the man had stayed, and sometimes, it just got to be too much.

Once she was around, he had been able to channel it more. He could focus on her, and then the evil would have no place to dig in. He had even stopped the human assassinations. He still killed demons and vampires; they even had a few demons that would pay for him to kill other demons. All in all, it seemed things worked out for the best, and if they double-crossed him, he didn't feel bad about killing them.

They had left New Orleans one step in front of the cops.

Seems that a pimp in the Quarter had turn up dead. Someone had scalped him one night, after cutting off his balls. The night before he had died, Tara had pointed him out to Xander as the guy who had drugged her, and said she was going to go after him.

But Xander had stopped her. Told her it was a test to see how loyal she was; if she could let this guy walk without doing anything to him just because Xander said so, then she would be loyal to him.

But the next day, there on TV was the guy's face. Dead and almost skinned alive.

Tara looked at Xander, and he had told her just because he had said she couldn't do anything didn't mean that nothing would happen to him. She was one of his girls, now, and he would watch out for her as long as she needed. 

When he had said that she was one of his girls, it finally clicked.

Sunnydale.  
Xander.

Willow's friend. 

And then she remembered the pictures at Buffy's - the dark haired boy laying with them in the yard while they all laughed.

"Your Willow's Xander?" she asked him one night while they were getting ready for bed.

They had been sleeping in the same bed ever since she had hooked up with Xander; no sex, just comfort on both sides. They would even change clothes in the room together.

Not that Xander would have minded. But Tara hadn't want to do that, so they didn't.

"Yep, she's my Willow."

"But you're dead."

"So are you," he had pointed out to the Witch.

To which she replied, "Uh. Yeah."

That was all a few days ago. They were entering the city of Biloxi, now, and heading for Casino row, to get a room and hit the tables.

Tara was enjoying the sights as the came off the I-110 loop, and headed into the heart of the Casinos.

She had her arms tight around Xander's waist as their bike picked up speed. Holding on tightly to Xander, she breathed deep the smell of leather, mixed with male sweat, the breeze blowing, the smell of salt water across the road.

Girls... You like girls... Tara reminded herself.

Well, she still did, but Xander could be such a sweetie to her. And he was there, she slept with him. Had even awoken laying on top of him, and felt something poking her in the hip that was not anything but pure Xander.

They were getting closer. She had told him things about her childhood that she had never told anyone else. And he told her things, too. His childhood was as bad as hers. Both had their share of beatings. And both had a few rays of light there. Tara had her Mom; Xander had his Willow.

They pulled into a hotel and got a room. Tomorrow, they would hit the tables.  
The next day was full of fun. Tara lost a little, won a little; over all, it was a good day. They went to see some shows that night. Even did a little dancing.

Xander might be a bad ass now, , Tara thought as she watched him move among the ladies on the floor, but he still can't dance, she thought with a grin.

"Oh well, might as well save him," she said as she got up from the table.

They had been dancing for about 3 hours now, taking breaks when they could, then getting back into the game as soon as they could.

This was a release; she had been bottled up every since Sunnydale. And she had gotten Xander to drop his shields, a little at least, around her. He still had a lot of pain in him, but he talked a little more about it. Plus, he was teaching her the way of the sword. She still didn't have one of her own yet. When she found a style she liked, she would get one.

But what was really fun for her has been the Magic.

Xander's and hers found a common ground together, but had fun just playing with small spells. They were careful not to use them too much, but it was something that they could do together, and something which she was better than him at. She would teach the basics of magic to him, then he would teach the basics in hand to hand to her.

He also had a influence in her wardrobe. Gone were the flowing dresses and skirts, and in their place were leather and jeans. You just can't ride a bike in a dress, unless you wrap it around your waist and let everyone see what's yours.

Xander walked up to Tara. He was in need to night; it had been a long time.

"Tara here," she said, handing her some money. "Find a room tonight. I am getting a friend to stay over," nodding his head toward a girl at the bar.

"You know her?" Tara asked.

"Well, after tonight, I will. I need the room. It's been too long, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah," she said as it sank in. "I do." Hate had grown from nothing toward the girl. The bleached blonde bimbo.

"Xander?" Tara started, with a low voice barely over the sound of the music in the club.

"Yeah?"

"You know how you said we would share everything?"  
Xander's eyes widened.

"You want to join in?"

"NO!... I mean, no. Just that I will share anything I have with you."

There, she had said it. She was lonely and he was there; not really the right sex that she liked, but he was safe.

"You want to sleep with me?"

"No, sweetie, I do that all the time. I want to fuck you brains out."

Once she had said that, she knew she couldn't back down, and that if she did, there would be something between that would never leave. It was a one way trip, but one she was happy to go on.

Xander just stood there for a second.

"How far are we going to go with this?"

"How about friends with benefits? I mean, we can still see others if you want, but this way, it's safe for us."

"I guess we can work out the details later?"

"Yes, let's go to the room."

Sunnydale.

Willow and Giles had only been back for a week. And after a few mis-starts, the trio was getting together.

Buffy, Faith and Willow were just about to finish up shopping when they saw someone they thought they never would.

There was Xander's mom, talking to some man at the coffee shop they had just walked into.

The man was listening to what she was saying and taking notes.

"Must be a lawyer," Willow said.

"Huh?" Buffy asked. She had stayed away from Xander's parents after she had found out how they treated him.  
"Talked to mom yesterday. Seems the check has came in from the state on Xander's death. A BIG one. Both were off and running ever since. Dad saw Tony talking to a lawyer type yesterday. Now this."

As they sat and watched, it became clearer that this was not a lawyer, and with the Slayer hearing, they found out the guy was some kind of writer.

As the guy reached into his bag, Willow saw the tattoo on his wrist.

She had seen it before. In one of Giles books.

"I need to go," Willow said suddenly. Then she was out the door, Buffy and Faith watching her go.

"What was that about?" Faith asked,

"Maybe seeing her," Buffy said, pointing at Xander's mom, "brought up something she doesn't want to think about right now."

The Magic Box.

Giles was going over the books as Anya was working behind the counter. She had been trying to make up with him ever since the Spike incident, but it wasn't working. Giles could have forgiven her just about anything else, but that was the last straw.

Giles was still confused after his trip to England. Someone had been through his personal files here, too. All looking for anything to do with Xander. Why? He didn't know, but someone on the Council knew; that was apparent.

He had sat and watched as Willow had gone through all his old books on the Watchers. After a while, she sat back.

She had found what she was looking for, the book on the Society of the Watchers.

"Giles, why would the Society of the Watchers be looking into Xander?" she asked.

"The who?" Giles was at a loss.

"The Society of watchers. I saw their tattoo on a man's arm; he was asking  
about Xander today."

"Yes, Willow I heard you. It's just I haven't heard about them in a while. Wyndam-Pryce on the Council has ties with them. They are following something call the Game."  
"Pryce? Would Wesley know?"

"He may. His father is the contact with the group."

Biloxi, Mississippi  
The next day after THE event between them.

Tara and Xander just lay in bed. It had been a long time for both. A time to cut loose. Xander felt like he couldn't walk for a week.

And Tara was thinking if this was what straight sex was like, she needed to give another look at the life style she had chosen.

They both had cut loose that night, and did things to each other that, if they hadn't been Immortal, there would be really hurting this morning.

The phone rang.

A voice asked them to meet him in the lobby. Before hanging up the voice had called him Xander. Someone knew he was here.

They went prepared, spells and weapons ready, but there was only a man standing in the corner.

He had a job for Xander.

A group of lawyers were having problems with a vampire and his half-demon seer in LA. They wanted them gone and were willing to pay good money. Too good to turn down.

The catch - the lawyers were Wolfram& Hart, the group that had wanted him to turn in Buffy and the rest. The other part was Angel; he was the vampire.

Well, like they said, the money was too good to turn down. Guess he was heading to LA.

LA.

Angel was humming a little song while he watched Cordy and Wesley fight about where to put the new computer they had gotten for the hotel. 

Lorne was visiting with Fred and Gunn, who were sitting behind Angel, when Lorne and Cordy both spun and looked at Angel.

"What? What?" he said from both of their looks.

"Baby-face, the pale rider is coming for you. The Wolf and Ram and Hart hired him," Lorne said.

"Pale Rider?" Angel asked.

Cordy looked at Angel. Her Vision had shown who was coming, but she knew both that were coming were dead.

"Yes, The Pale Rider. He is also going to see your blonde Slayer, too," Lorne continued.

Cordy saw, in her mind, Xander riding down the streets with a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other. He was attacking people and cutting their heads off.

And riding with him was Tara. She didn't know the girl very well, but she knew both were dead.

"Angel, the Pale Rider - it's Xander. He came back," Cordy said.

"And I don't think he is human any more."


	8. Chapter 8

Xander and Tara had arrived in LA two days ago, and  
got a room across from the Hyperion Hotel. Tara was  
still not sure what Xander was going to do. He had  
brought up a huge rifle and set it up on the table,  
pointing out a window. And then he sat and watched  
the hotel. He used a camera to take pictures. Then he  
would stick them on the wall with crosshairs on them  
in black ink, while the ones of Cordy and Angel were  
done in red. He was also writing little notes about  
their habits. Who came in when and what doors they  
used.

On the third day, he started to follow them. And that  
too went on the wall. Who went where and how long. He  
was even able to get copies of Wesley's apartment  
door. Wesley had replaced the door, due to some problems with a demon, and the crew had a  
spare key. It only cost him a hundred bucks to buy the key off the workers. But now  
he could come and go in the apartment at will. He even  
went in and moved some of the stuff around. Just to  
see if Wesley noticed, he did seem to.

At the end of the week. Xander looked at Tara.

"Have to make up my mind soon," Xander told his  
student, "they'll send a team to replace me soon."

"Xander," Tara told her teacher slash lover, "We can't  
kill them. They fight the good fight. The world needs  
people like them."

"Yeah, I know," Xander pulled his Rifle up looking  
through the scope. "But I don't feel like I fight on  
that side any more."

"Oh, Xander, you can't give up," she said, looking at  
him holding the rifle up; the darkness that was apart of  
him now was simmering below the surface. It was as if a halo  
of evil hung onto him. But in him was a pure light of  
a good soul. If he was any different, she would have  
left him long before. Even if he had saved her. By now  
she had paid him back. And she was going to help himout of the darkness anyway she could.

"I haven't given up, but the road is dark sometimes. I  
need a good guide every now and then," Xander said  
looking away from the rifle and at Tara. "But Angel,  
is a border line hero. One moment of happiness and  
he's evil."

"But could you condemn someone for something they  
might do?" Tara said sitting down next to Xander at  
the table.

Xander looked at her, then back through the scope  
again. It was night out, and the lights were out in  
the apartment. The hotel across the street was lit up.  
He could see Cordy and Angel standing in a room. Angel  
was holding a baby.

Humm, that's new, Xander thought. Angel was holding  
the baby, and Cordy was standing beside him. Looking  
at the baby like a new mother.

"Hey," Xander asked still looking at the couple. "Did  
Cordy have a baby?"

"No," Tara said looking out through the window. She  
couldn't make out much, but enough to see both Angel  
and Cordy holding a small bundle.

Xander made up his mind. The looks on their faces,  
holding the child, his ex and an old rival.  
The looks of love at the child, and the looks of what  
could have been the start of something on their faces.

"Tara," Xander said as he pulled the weapon tighter  
into his shoulder, "it's time to leave. Grab the bags  
and meet me down at the bike."

They had kept everything packed here only taking out  
what was needed. She did as she was told but stopped  
at the door. Looking at him, she asked, "What are you  
going to do?"

"Trust me?" he asked not looking up from the rifle.  
"Yes, I trust you." With that she was out the door.

Xander looked through the scope, putting  
the crosshairs on his target. Then pulled the  
trigger. Then after the shot was done, he stopped only to add something  
to the  
wall, then he too was out the door, and to the bike  
before anyone knew what was going on. Xander and Tara  
were three blocks away and gone in less than 5  
minutes. It would make the next meeting very interesting.

Hyperion hotel  
Angel Bedroom

"Conner's asleep," Angel told Cordy as he lead her out  
the room. That was when the window exploded inward.  
Angel felt the bullet fly between him and Cordy,  
striking a picture on the wall. "Get down," Angel  
yelled knocking Cordy to the ground and jumping to  
cover Connor with his body. But no  
second shot came. After a few minutes, everyone was  
moving out of the room.

Within 15 minutes Angel, Gunn and Wesley were in the  
room from which the shot had come. The rifle was still  
sitting on the table. But what really got there  
attention was the wall. The pictures of the group.  
Sometimes in groups, sometimes single. Shots of Fred  
walking into a supermarket, a crosshair drawn on her.  
Gunn sitting in his truck with "boom" written over it.  
A picture of Wesley's apartment with his whiskey bottle  
and some of his oranges on a table. Beside them was a  
bottle with a skull and cross bones on it with a  
needle and syringe beside them. A shot of Lorne  
walking out of his club with a crosshair on him. Then  
Cordy and Angel pictures with a pink heart surrounding  
them. Their pictures were different. Cordy was walking  
around her rooms. And on them you could see Dennis, as  
he helped her move things. And then there was the  
pictures of Angel, in his bedroom while he was  
sleeping. And taped to the bottom. Was a note.

'I said I would be there whenyou were dusted.

Watch you back.

X.

PS. Give my regards to, Cordy.'

"Xander's here," was all Angel could say.

Xander slowed the bike down once he was sure that  
anyone following them would have been lost. They  
needed a place to lay low for a few hours, then he was  
going to find out why the lawyers wanted Angel dead.  
Angelus he understood, but Angel had been his friend  
when the others had turned their back on him.

He stopped in front of an antique shop.

"Lets go shopping," Xander said. He was looking for  
the perfect present for Tara. Something to show that  
he cared. It had been a long time since he cared for  
someone. When he killed that damned cowboy, it seemed  
that the world had grown a lot darker. But now there  
was a little sunshine in it: Tara. Her light moods  
would help him when the darkness would boil up inside him.  
He hated to think what he would have become without her.

It hit both of them as they walked into the shop:  
another Immortal. They looked around. There behind  
the counter stood the Immortal.

"I am Xander Harris, this is Tara McClay," Xander  
began the greeting ritual that most Immortals do upon  
meeting another of their kind.

"My name is Jack the Red," the man said, looking at  
Xander and Tara. Well, really looking at Tara, she  
was in her shorts and T-shirt again. Xander couldn't  
hold it against the guy; who wouldn't look at the hot  
blonde?  
"We're not looking for heads, just shopping," Xander  
said but moved a hand under his duster to his cutlass.  
"But we will not be easy to take down."

"Nope you wouldn't. But then, I am not looking for  
heads either," Jack said, still looking at Tara.  
Then he turned to look at Xander. "What can I show  
you?"

After three hours in the shop and looking at  
everything twice, he couldn't find anything, and Tara  
was bored out of her mind. Watching Xander shop was  
taxing, how could he complain about her shopping when  
he shops like this? Man, he is taking  
twice as long as I take to find a bra that fits right, she  
thought, looking at Xander.

"Well, since you can't find what you are looking for,"  
Jack said, hold out a whiskey shot glass. "Take this.  
It's the least I can do for one of us."

"Sure, thanks." Xander took the drink and downed it  
with one fast gulp. Tara could feel something was  
off, and started to warn Xander, but it was too late;  
the drink was down. Jack just looked on with a smile.

Xander knew something was off the minute the drink  
went down his throat, then the burning hit and he fell  
to the floor.

Poison! he thought as he felt the world leave. He  
had fallen for the shopkeeper's routine, like  
some damn kid. Now he could take Xander's head  
without a fight, and Tara... Oh god, Tara had never  
taken a head, and he couldn't protect her.

Tara watched Xander fall. Then looked at Jack, who  
smiled a smile of serenity, a smile the insane are  
only capable of doing.

"You know, my dear," Jack began as he pulled a kriss  
from under the counter. At the same time he pushed a  
button that caused the door to lock behind Tara. "I  
have not had the chance to work on an immortal female  
in a while. It should be fun."  
Tara turned and ran, the only place that was left  
open: the backroom. She pulled a dagger out from her  
waist band. If I live through this, she thought  
I'll never go anywhere without my sword again.

The backroom was huge. Boxes lined the floor. She  
jumped over a few low ones to get some distance  
from Jack as he tore into the room after her. Once  
there, she looked around, all she needed to do was  
keep him away from her til Xander woke up. That's all.  
She had never taken a head and really didn't want to  
start. Praying for Mother Earth and the Goddess to  
protect her, she dove behind some larger boxes, to  
hide in the shadows there.

Jack had lost her. He knew the warehouse section of  
his store was big, but not that big. He used it to  
store statues and furniture. There were plenty of places to  
hide and only so much time before that Xander guy  
woke up. He needed to take out the girl - then he  
could go back for the guy. After that he could take  
his time with her.

Tara sat in the shadows. She was recalling spells that  
she would need to get away, and she new she could but  
she would have to leave Xander behind, and that was so  
not an option.

Jack walked in front of the box that she was hiding  
behind. She knew she was going to have to so  
something.

Out in the front Xander was coming back. He sat up  
with a groan. The poison was still in his system as he  
pulled himself up.

Tara, got to find Tara, was the only thought he had.

She was the only one that he trusted, she was his  
friend, maybe more.

He could see the back door was open to a storeroom orsomething. Pulling himself toward it, he pulled out  
his pistol. He knew he was in no shape to fight, but  
if he could shoot Jack, maybe Tara could get away.

Fighting the blurry double vision aftereffects from  
the poison, he leaned onto the door frame. He couldn't  
see more than a few feet before it got too blurry to  
see.

From her angle Tara could see Xander leaning on the  
doorframe. But she knew he wasn't able to see her. And  
Jack was looking right at him, having seen the  
movement at the door way.

Xander was looking around, but you could tell he  
couldn't see anything. The poison was still affecting  
him. He was holding his pistol but his hand was shacking  
heavily. Jack just smiled - this was going to be easy.  
Then he would hunt down the girl, and have his fun with her.  
He took a step toward Xander.

Tara knew it was now or never. If she didn't act,  
Xander was dead. But she would have to kill Jack to  
save Xander. The thought of killing weighed heavily  
on her. She had never killed, well she had killed  
demons but not humans, and that was something  
different to her.

Jack moved in on Xander, looking over his shoulders  
into the dark warehouse. "If you won't  
come out and play, I'll have to find someone who will."

Right then Xander slid back to the floor, the strength  
running out of him. A coldness creeping back into his  
limbs, the poison was working on him again. Just as  
the light faded from his eyes, he saw Jack  
walking toward him. Then he felt the pistol fall from  
his unresponsive hand. A shadow moved  
behind Jack: Tara. Then it was dark.

Jack stood over Xander's body. A sneer on his face.  
This was too easy; this would make five heads this  
month. He sometimes felt like it should be a little  
harder. But not today - this Xander guy was too   
dangerous.And Tara was an unknown. He would have their heads, but  
not before playing a little with the girl.

He drew back his sword. He was preparing to take the  
fallen man's head, when a sharp pain hit him in the  
back around his heart.

"There can be only one," came to him as he fell to the  
floor. As another knife stab hit him in the spine,  
everything from the mid-back down stopped  
working. He saw it was that Tara girl with a dagger,  
looking at him, as he tried to get his lungs working.

Tara bent down and picked up Jack's kriss. It was an  
elegant thing, its wavy blade was acid etched, and the  
hilt was of ivory with bone inlays. She looked down at  
Jack as he gasped on the floor.

"You should have let us go," she said, then sliced  
off Jack's head with one swipe of the kriss.

"There can be only one," Tara whispered again as she  
made her first kill as an Immortal. She turned to  
watch Xander as a mist formed around Jack's body. Small bolts of lighting started to dance across the floor,  
moving toward Tara. She felt them, but didn't look at  
them. He eyes were on Xander, as he lay on the floor.

As the bolt increased in size, Jack's body was slowly  
rising off the floor. Then the first bolt hit Tara.  
Pain ran through her body. The life of Jack flowed  
into her mind. The evil that he did trying to stick to  
her mind. But she fought it back, she used the skills  
to push them back. She saw him in his life, she saw  
how he was once called Red Jack, or better known as  
Jack the Ripper. Soon it was over. She was on her  
knees, her clothes were smoking. The pain was leaving  
a feeling of power, of wants, and needs. And right now  
she needed Xander. Who was coming around again.

"Xander you need to purge your system," Tara told him,  
helping Xander up.

While Tara held him, Xander stuck his finger down his  
throat, causing him to vomit up the poison.  
"Is this love or what?" Tara asked, smiling down at  
her heaving friend.

"Remind me to hold you too, when you are gagging like  
this."

"Xander, you know I don't have a gag reflex."

"You just have to flirt with me while..." gahh "I'm  
emptying my stomach on the ground."

"What can I say..." Tara said, then bit her lip,  
"it's love."

Xander had come to a stop. Love? Did she say love?  
Both Xander and Tara had joked around about loving one  
another. But to come out and say it. And mean it?

"Did you say what I thought you said?" Xander asked  
standing up.

"Yes," Tara said, she wasn't sure that he loved her,  
he cared for her and was her only lover now. They had  
just been friends. But she wanted more.

"You know, there can only be one survivor of the  
Game?" Xander asked. She loves me? Why would I be  
worth it? he thought to himself.

"Xander, if it came down to just us two..." Tara  
paused, "I will not fight you."

"Well, it's a good thing I don't believe in the Game  
now, is it?"

The Game in Xander's mind was a waste of time, it was  
something that other Immortals did to pass away the  
years.

"So what now?" Tara asked. She new that usually when a  
student took their first head, they started to go  
their own way, and she so didn't want to leave Xander.

"Well, first thing," Xander began, looking at Tara,"We get cleaned up. Then we go party." Then he added  
just loud enough for her to hear, "I love you too."

Across town Buffy and Willow along with Faith pulled  
up to a club. Cocomama's. It had been around in one  
form or another for years. It would move every so  
often to keep the neighbors happy. Half church, half  
orgy it was the place to be. Cocomama was an Aztec  
goddess: the goddess of drugs and sex. Faith had  
heard about it on a trip a few months ago, and  
decided today was the day to party. They had tricked  
Giles into watching Dawn, not that it was hard -  
between the three of them they could get him to do  
anything. His three grown up daughters, while Dawn was  
his little girl. They would sit up and talk about  
history and books. And when the others were not  
around: Xander. Dawn missed him more and more. She had  
a crush on him for a long time. And after he went to  
jail for the Scooby's it became worse. But she was  
never able to go see him. Something would always come  
up. Then it was too late and he was gone. So on their  
alone nights, she would ask Giles to tell her about  
Xander stories from when he would help out with the  
slaying.

By the time the girls had found the club. It was going  
full steam. And soon they were too. It was a time to  
cut loose for them.

After getting cleaned up in a new Hotel, Xander and  
Tara hit the clubs. They had a little slow start that  
night - Tara was buzzing off the feelings from  
Jack's qwicking. Following a kill, Immortals have a lot of  
energy to burn off. The feeling was like a high she  
had never felt before, she could now understand why  
other Immortals would start head hunting, if this was  
what they felt after every head taken.

Xander watched his girl with a smile, it was the first  
one in a long time that was real. Tara was just so  
cute right now. Jumping from one subject to another,talking about things that he half understood. Even  
though he now understood a lot of magic now, Tara  
still had him beat on everything else. And she was  
just jumping from subject to subject most times before  
she even finished what she had started to talk about.

They pulled up to Cocomama's. They had put on their  
best clubbing clothes. Xander in a dark, black  
button-down shirt,  
with leather pants and wide belt with a large belt  
buckle on it, and of course he had on  
his ever present duster. Tara was in her denim  
mini-skirt and tight pullover t-shirt, with fishnet  
stockings and high heels to complete the look. She was  
also wearing a long coat, with Jack's kriss under it.  
It was small enough to hide there and long enough to  
fight with.

When they got to the club it was really going.  
Outside, the cabs had lined up to take the earlier  
partiers home, and still people where lined up to get in.  
Cocomama's was the in place to be and had been for  
years. In the line, there were stars and producers of  
every shape and color, but no one just got let into  
Coco's. At least not Mortals. The Club was an Immortal  
hang out. It was Holy Ground where they could let  
their guard down and enjoy themselves, and not have to  
worry about a fight. Tez, the immortal high priestess,  
would not allow it. She made sure that all Immortals  
never left together if they didn't come in together.  
She had been in charge of the church of Cocomama's for  
a very long time. She was one of the goddess's lovers  
before she became a goddess. And was one of the first  
people to find her after she had ascended to godhood.

As the Immortal duo walked to the door, you could hear  
the snide comments from the people in line. Most were  
wearing clothes that cost more than most people's  
homes. But it was cut short when the door man just  
opened the door for them.

"That was fun," Tara told Xander as they walked  
inside. She had always been looked down on by those  
with more money or power than she had, from her family  
to outsiders. It was nice to be the one that gets togo to the head of the line once in a while.

The lights wear flashing and the music was pulsing,  
but Willow felt a little left out. Faith and Buffy had  
gotten her in here, but she felt a little like a fish  
out of water. She was having fun, but something was  
missing. What she couldn't tell, but it wasn't there.  
The guys that wanted to dance with her just wanted to  
pull her upstairs to the private rooms, and the girls  
just wanted to play at being gay, something to impress  
their friends with. While Buffy and Faith had to beat them  
of them, Willow just had to sit back. She nursed her  
drink and watched the people move around. Her mind  
going back to the people that were looking into  
Xander's background. Why? He was dead. In a mass  
grave true, but the people at the jail wouldn't say  
something like that. Would they?

Now if someone was looking down from above at the  
dance floor, it would have been an entertaining time.  
While Xander and Tara danced and moved around the  
floor, Buffy and Faith did the same thing. Only luck,  
fate or what have you, had them never looking in the  
direction that the others were. Not that  
Buffy or Faith would have recognized Xander. The years  
had changed him - no longer was he the skinny young man, but he  
now was a tall muscular man, with close-cut hair.  
Tara, they would have noticed in a second, and Xander  
would have noticed them. Tara pulled  
Xander upstairs to the private rooms. Rooms where  
people pay their devotions to Cocomama, the Goddess of  
Sex and Drugs. Where if you sexually satisfy the woman  
you're with, the Goddess would give you a cocaplant  
leaf.

It just so happened at that precise moment a little  
redhead who was drinking just little too much, looked  
in just the right place at just the right time... and  
saw her Tara with a guy's tongue down her throat, his  
hands under her skirt and on her ass. When she started  
to get up, the room was spinning, but then the guy looked  
back over her shoulders pulling Tara closer to him. The  
face on the guy was something she would never forget, itwas a face that she had seen all of her life and lately only in  
her dreams. It was Xander! Then Willow only knew what  
the floor felt like as she crashed to the ground, and  
darkness washed over her.

For those that want to know what a kriss looks like  
http/ those that want to know more about Cocomama  
http/ 


	9. Chapter 9

Title: A Cowboy still in LA

Author: Robert Jackson

Email: Xander/ Tara

Rating: R (Violence, sex and drug use)

Summary: This the next in the cowboy stories, who would have thought a one shot would grow like this.

Willow came to slowly; from the front seat of the car, she could hear the voices of two happy Slayers talking. She sat up looking around. They were apparently on their way out of LA, back to Sunnydale.

"Guys," Willow said as she got up. "We need to go back."

"What?" Faith asked. "Forget to get someone's number?"

"No, I saw Xander and Tara at the club!" Willow's eyes were wide and she was breathing heavily.

Buffy pulled over to the side of the road, then looked back at one of her oldest friends.

"Wills," she began. "They're dead. You don't come back from that."

To which Faith snorted, "Well, most people don't," while giving Buffy a pointed look.

"I know that they're dead, but they were at the club."

Willow wanted to scream at them this was no time for games, that her Xander and Tara were back. And she was going to find them.

"Honey, was this before or after you passed out?" Buffy asked.

"Buffy, I can't believe you said that!" Willow almost screamed at the blonde Slayer.

"Xander and Tara are dead," Faith said. "I wish they weren't but they are. And once that happens, it's done. Most the time, if we see an old friend that's been dead, then next thing they try to do is eat us!"

"I know what I saw." Willow said.

"Wills," Buffy tried again, "Let's go by Angel's and talk to them. They might look around for us, and then we can go back to Sunnydale. But I have to tell you, Xander's dead."

"So when did you see them?" Faith asked. It would be a long drive back to LA and if she could talk some sense into her redheaded friend, they could get back to Sunnydale and rest. After all, school was tomorrow.

"I saw them go upstairs," she said,

"So that's why you dragged us up there," Buffy said, a blush starting on her cheeks.

"What? We went upstairs?" Willow asked. She couldn't remember going up there.

Buffy said, looking in the mirror at her friend, "Don't you remember?"

"No. I don't remember anything after I passed out on the floor."

Faith started to laugh, then stopped fast as both Buffy and Willow looked at her.

"Honey," Faith began, "you dragged us into the middle of an orgy. And let's just say we all had fun up there."

"Anyway," Buffy said, to get off that subject, "Xander is dead."

"Xander's alive," Angel told the trio.

They were all sitting around the Hyperion's reception area.

To say that statement shocked Buffy and Faith was to say that water was a little wet. It was something neither was expecting. Willow, on the other hand, had a smug look on her face. You could almost see her saying 'I told you so,' with her eyes.

"But you need to stay away from him," continued Angel, looking at them, his eyes very serious. "He's not the same as you knew him."

"What do you mean?" Willow asked.

Her Xander was back, and if he was back, then she was certain that he was with Tara, but that was a little strange. If that was Tara Xander was kissing, then what happen to her being gay? Did you change when you died? Buffy died and she didn't become gay. But she did now spend a lot of time with Faith. Hmmm, Faith and Buffy in bed, Willow thought. No, stop the naughty sex thoughts about Faith and Buffy...Hmmmm.

"Uh, Willow, you all right?" Buffy asked. "You sort of moaned my name there."

"Nope, nothing's wrong," Willow said looking around at everyone. The evil beer made her think about that. Nope, no more evil beer for Willow.

"Ok," Angel began again, looking at Willow and wondering why she had suddenly smelled like she was wanting sex.

"Well, Xander has changed and, from the bullet in the wall of my room, I think he is out to kill me."

With that, the room got very quite.

Across town

A very sore and very fulfilled Tara pulled herself out of bed.

Xander was laying half off the bed, and Tara had been on top of him. It had been a good night, not that she remembered most of it.

After the club, that is.

Before that, it was all crystal clear. She had killed a man last night, then went out to party about it.

What did that make her?

She stood at the foot of the bed, looking at the floor length mirror at her nude form. Upstairs that night had been a dream, then it took a step beyond that. She had done things that night that she had only dreamed of; plus, Xander and Tara even tried out the orgy room.

Only couples were allowed in, and anything goes. They had shared a night that she couldn't believe, with no jealous feeling toward anyone.

Part of that was due to the sex spells that had been laid over the place: no babies, no diseases and no hard feelings. The spells even mask the ones in the rooms, so you never really know who you're with. The only ones that can be seen clearly would be your lover, the one that you came in with. It was part of the blessings on the place. But being as they were Immortal, and could wield magic, the Blessings would not blind them as much as a normal human would have been.

Soon, she felt eyes on her as she stood there. Turning, she saw Xander was watching her. He didn't say anything, just got up and walked to her, pulling her into a hug.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked, watching her in the mirror.

"Last night - is that what's it always going to be like?" Tara asked, looking back into Xander's eyes.

"Can't say that," Xander let a smile flow across his lips. "But I hope I keep feeling them. If I didn't feel something, would life be worth living?"

"Xan.."

"No, Tar," Xander cut her off, "We live, they die. That's the way it is. You can't get away from it. Unless you want to become a nun or something, and move onto holy ground?"

"No, I don't think I would make a good nun."

"I don't know...We can get you a nun's habit and see what games we can make up," Xander said with a dirty little smile on his face.

"XANDER!" Tara yelled at him. Tara had been raised Catholic, and the very thought of a nun habit and Xander in bed just rubbed her... On second thought...

Xander just started to laugh, to which Tara then pushed back against him. She could feel him start to harden as she moved her body up and down slowly.

"I thought you would be worn out this morning?" Xander asked in a low husky voice.

"Nope, the thought of me and you and a nun's habit," she said and then paused. "Hey, we could get you a priest collar, too."

"Now who's the kinky one?" The smirk on his face was full of lust.

The shorter Immortal laid her head back onto Xander chest.

"I was a lesbian witch. I think I won that contest a while ago. I had to do a lot of spells skyclad, you know."

"Huh?" Xander said, rubbing his hands up her sides. Then he bent down to nibble on her neck, causing Tara to moan aloud. And the sound of her moans were causing him to harden more.

"Just think, me in a field with a group of women all nude." Then Tara decided to try something. "Willow was there, too."

If anything Xander got harder, but then it went away. He let go of Tara and walked away toward the bed.

"Sorry, Xan," Tara began.

"No," he cut her off. "She was your friend, and was closer to you than I have gotten. You only left her because you woke up from your first death thinking that you were a demon."

"Xan," Tara started as she walked toward him. Then she was the one to pull the other into a hug. "She loves you. They all do."

"No they don't, the only one that loved me is dead," Xander said, thinking back to the group from Sunnydale, and the woman he thought of as his mom.

"Yes, they do. They were just lost," Tara told her lover. "You could talk to them. Just go see them. Maybe visit Joyce's grave."

That's what did it. He would go see Joyce; then, if it worked out, then he see the others.

Tara pulled him into a hug, thinking how different it was from last night. There was no jealousy from last night. But there was no real passion either. It was just fun. And they had fun between the drugs and the booze. And the redhead last night with the dark-haired girl.

"Wait a minute..." Tara began. Xander looked at her. He could tell that Tara was thinking about something significant.

"Xand," Tara said looking at Xander, "the redhead last night - you remember, the one with the dark haired friend. Was that Willow?"

"Willow would never do something like that," Xander said, but his mind was working. He really didn't do much with the red head. She was into the girls at the party, but her friend... He had a lot of fun with the dark-haired girl, and the blonde girl that was with them.

Then, as if a light switch was turned on, he remembered the little sound she made, and the birthmark on her back. Faith? And if Willow and Faith had been there, was the blonde Buffy?

"Uh, if that was Willow," Xander asked, a questioning look on his face, "then could the other have been Faith?"

"It could have been," Tara agreed, biting her lip. "And the blonde that was with them? Buffy?"

"This visit to Sunnydale will be a load of fun," Xander said with a grin.

"So Xander shot at you?" Buffy asked. For the third time.

"YES!" Cordy yelled at her. "Are you deaf? Dweeb boy tried to kill us."

"Yeah?" Willow said, looking at the rifle. "He shot at you from across the

street with that? And missed?"

"Yes, Willow," Wesley said. He had been watching the Sunnydale group since they got there. All of them had lost their way at one time or another. And after Faith had tortured him, he was not going to give anyone a second chance at that, with him or anyone else. He made sure that Fred was always t least one person away from them. Gunn had noticed what Wesley was doing and did the same.

But Faith noticed it and realized it was to be expected. She was not that person anymore, but she did do those things and she would pay the price. But it still hurt to see Wes' reaction.

The other girls didn't notice what was going on, and were still looking at the rifle and listening to what had happened.

"Yes," Angel said. "With that rifle. Why?"

"Well, if Xander used that one, he couldn't have missed, unless he meant to," the redhead explained. "His Uncle Rory had one just like that and would shoot at targets up to 1000 yards away. Xander was very good with it. He would win candy money at the range where they would go shooting. He was a natural with it; he once said that was the only thing he was good at."

"So he's good with a gun?" Cordy asked. Then she added with a sigh, "Oh, boy we're in trouble. You bring any more good news?"

Tara and Xander were now sitting at a small dinner a few blocks away from Angel's hotel. They were almost finished with their breakfast and were planning out their day.

"So where do we go first?" Tara asked as she nibbled on a piece of toast.

"Well," Xander started as he drank the last of his coffee, "we need to see Angel, then protect him from the hit."

"That's sounds easy," Tara said lightly.

"Yeah. Easy," Xander said, his voice giving something away. Tara wasn't sure what but something.

"Xander, what did you do to Angel?" Tara's eyes widened. "My god, you shot him, didn't you?"

"What? No! I didn't shoot him," Xander protested. Then his voice dropped. "Just shot into the room."

"You didn't. I thought you just shot at the building."

"Well.." Xander hesitated.

"Alexander Harris, what did you shoot?" Tara said, looking him right in the eyes.

"I didn't hurt anyone. Just scared them. You know, so they would watch out if something happened to us."

"Yeah," Tara just looking at her lover. "Right. You wouldn't hurt him."

"Hey, even if I did shoot him, he's a vamp. A gun shot wouldn't kill him."

After a huff, Tara said, "Sure, Xander. Let's go."

This is his revenge on me for Sunnydale. It's got to be,. Tara thought as

they headed off down the street toward Angel's hotel.

"So, we're in agreement?" Wesley asked. "We need to find Xander before he tries anything again."

"Yes," Buffy said. "But I don't think he will just walk in the door."

"Hi, guys. Miss me?" a very familiar voice called from the door.

Turning, they saw that there in the doorway stood Xander, his arm draped over Tara's shoulders.

He had a cocky grin on his face. Tara had a worried look on hers as she noticed who all was here. She knew that Angel and his crew would be here. She didn't expect Buffy, Faith or, worse, Willow.

"Fuck," Tara whispered to herself, then drew herself up. She needed to back Xander on this. He was pulling back from the edge everyday and he didn't need to take any more steps toward it.

In a instant, the room had gone from the quiet of a threat that was somewhere out there, to one with a threat right here. Weapons appeared in hands, eyes hardened.

The only ones without weapons in hand were Tara, Xander and Willow.

Willow just stood there with a glazed look in her eyes. Her Xander was back and he had brought Tara back to her.

Tara and Xander didn't draw any weapons because both knew between their magic and fighting skills, they could at least get away, if need be. And right now they were there to help. But if help was not needed, they would be gone.

"Thank the Goddess," Willow whispered and started toward Tara and Xander.

Buffy and Faith stopped her with a hand on each arm. Both held stakes with the other. And the look on Xander's face when he noticed them was not his usual puppydog look. No, it was more like that of a pit bull that was coming after your face.

Tara looked between them.

She saw Willow, clean and pure again. The Taint of the dark magic she had cast was still there, but muted. Then she looked at Xander, who looked back at her.

The hurt he felt about his friend was open for her to see. She knew if she chose to go to Willow, he would let her, but he would never forgive her, even if he forgave them. She was an Immortal. They were normal humans. They would die soon enough for them.

She did love Willow, but she also loved Xander and his need was greater, so she drew closer to him, leaning in to whisper.

"I am yours. Forever."

Across the room, Willow felt as if someone had punched her in her stomach. There was her Tara and Xander and both wanted nothing to do with her. What had she done? Why didn't they want her?

"Xander," Angel began. "Some night huh?"

"More than you know," Xander said, looking around at all the weapons. "You don't need those."

"And we're supposed to just drop our weapons and kiss and make up?" Gunn

asked.

"Nope. But Angel, you know the rules of my kind right?"

To which Angel nodded. He had heard of the head hunters. Most of Demonkind had and learned to leave them alone. They were deadly, but no more than most vampires, and a lot more trouble than they were worth.

"Meet us Cocomama's tonight," Xander said, then grinned. "Bring Buffy and the girls. Last night was a fun time for all. We might want to have a rematch."

With that. the Immortal duo and turned and left.

"Last night?" Cordy asked, looking at the Sunnydale group. "You guys went to a

Swingers Club?"

"Cordy, it's a church. Holy ground," Angel said

"What kind of Church is that place? All I have ever heard of the place is it's good for people getting stoned and fucking," Gunn said, looking around at the group, the images of the girls from Sunnydale in the nude playing out in his head.

"It's Holy ground to the Goddess Cocomana, the Goddess of Drugs and Sex," Wesley explained to the group. "And from what I can glean, she is still there."

"They can't fight on Holy ground," Angel said. "It's one of their rules, and a big one from what I have heard."

"So, we meet them. And find out why they're trying to kill us?" Fred asked.

"It's the only way," Angel said again.

He had still not taken his eyes off the door.

What had happened to the boy he had known and respected so much?

Well, hated, too. But that was beside the point.


	10. Chapter 10

Title: A Cowboy Lost in the Black.

Author: Robert Jackson

Email: to archive: yes, just let me know where.

Rating: PG to R

Summary: Another Cowboy story, takes place in the far future, bare with the story all will be explained as it goes along.

Warnings: Anything between - is Chinese, I do not speak or understand Chinese so bare with me on it. Takes place after the movie. This is a jump in the time line, but All will revealed in time with the story.

Notes: you can find most of my stories at http/ ship tumbled through the black. Pieces of its hull could been seen floating along with it. It was an old freight hauler just like Serenity, just a different an older model. It was a W-34 wolverine class. The small ship had once been a very powerful ship, but now was just so much space junk. But there was a small sign of power coming from it. It had a beacon going, but the power was almost drained from it.

Mal and the rest of the crew stood on the bridge and watched as the derelict did its slow dance through the black..

"You want to tell me how you found this?" Mal asked River who sat at the pilot's chair. Ever since Walsh had been killed by Reavers, she had taken over as Pilot. Mal was of two minds on the matter; River was a great pilot, but she was also crazy as a bed bug.

"He called out to me," was all River would said about it.

Crazy talk.

Only Kaylee acted like she knew what River meant. Kaylee was always going on about how Serenity was talking to her and telling her what was wrong with it. When River said something like that, it made her seem crazy, but when Little Kaylee said it, it was cute. Mal didn't make the rules, he just lived by them. Well, lived by as few rules as possible, but he did still live by them.

"Captain," Kaylee said, a worried look on her face. "I don't like this. It's like robbing the dead."

"Dead don't eat. We do," Mal said, not ever taking his eyes off the ship. "Get the suits ready. We're going over."

"What's her name?" Zoe asked.

"Looks like Far something," Mal said. There was a dark stain over the ship's name, a blast mark from some kind of impact - one that holed the ship.

Farther down the ship, a hole could be seen cutting through the engine room, which was the shot that killed the ship. There numerous other blasts and marks all over the ship. It looked as if the ship had gone into battle.

And lost.

"Mal?" Simon asked. "You sure about this?"

"Look, that beacon was there for a reason. Right?"

"Yes."

"And ships that small didn't carry big things. Only small things, things worth a lot of money. We're going."

Inara stood off to the side. She had heard the conversation.

It couldn't be. Looking at the ship, it couldn't be his ship. John was dead on some planet, not floating around in space. If it was his ship, why was it out here? He was usually traveling the central worlds, not out here on the fringe.

But he could be here. She had not seen him in ten years. If it was his ship, she would see that the nice captain of that ship put to rest on a planet somewhere and not drift forever.

Later

Mal and Jayne moved through the derelict ship heading toward the hold, while Zoe and Simon headed for the bridge.

Since the death of her husband, Zoe had moved closer to Simon, after the short romance had died out between Simon and Kaylee, and Simon had moved closer to Zoe.

Neither one understood their attraction to each other, only that it was there. But neither one wanted to rush it, and with Walsh being dead only a year, they were in no hurry. They were just letting it go wherever it was going; that was enough for them.

Both teams were so busy looking at the damage to the ship that neither noticed the small box mounted on the airlock, or how it started to flash when they opened the hatch.

River and Kaylee were looking over the ship from the outside, using what sensors Serenity had to find out anything else about the ship and to make sure no one could sneak up on them.

Normally at least, Kaylee would have been looking through the engine room, to scrap out anything they could use on Serenity, but there was a hole right through the derelict there, and you could see star-light blinking from the gas nebula on the other side of the wreak.

"He's awake," River whispers to her friend, as she watches the ship, giving a little shake of her head. "And he's not to happy."

In the hold of the ship, Mal and Jayne had found the beacon. It was hooked on to a box, and a power relay was hooked to it and then split off into the box.

"Cyro-box," Mal whispers, thought it is broadcasted over the suits' comm relays. "Whatever is in there should still be good. Let's get it back to the ship."

Forward

Zoe and Simon found their way to the bridge. They knew it was open to space, since they had seen it as they closed in. It was more in the hope to find the Captain's log and manifest, to find out where and what cargo it was carrying so they could deliver it and collect any pay for it.

But the manifest was curiously blank.

That is, until they read the last port of call was Miranda, the failed colony.

The place were all the Reavers were from.

"I think we need to get out of here," Simon said, and Zoe just nodded her head.

"Let's go," was all she said.

Moving out into the hallway, she suddenly drew her weapon and aimed down a hallway. Simon couldn't see anything there, but he felt like he was being watched.

Then a body slowly fell from the shadows; a Reaver, and behind him were more behind him, at least ten.

Someone had had a last stand here. The vacuum of space had kept them for the most part preserved, so there was no real way of tell how long they had been there. But from just a fast look-over, none had any bullet wounds. Some kind of energy weapon had been used on some, and others were slashed open.

And at the back was an airlock to a room. The door was standing open and the room was empty. There wasn't one piece of paper or spec of dirt on the floor. It had been a scrubbed look and feel to it.

This was too strange. It was time to leave this place.

"Captain," Zoe called over the comm unit. "We need to get out of here. We found Reavers. A lot of dead Reavers here."

Unseen by both Zoe and Simon, there a flash of movement behind that faded into a blur of motion moving down the passage way to the hold.

"REAVERS?" Jayne shouted over the comm. "I am out of here."

"Jayne!" Mal snapped at the gun man bring him to a stop. "Just get the box back to Serenity. We'll out of here soon. Dong-Ma?"

"Yeah," Jayne muttered, then started to move the box. It was big, maybe 5 feet by 5 feet and about 4 feet high. The low gravity eased his burden, and soon he had it on its way. They took a chance cutting power to it; it had a backup power source and would probably be ok for the transfer, as long as it wasn't off ship power for too long.

Unseen by both Mal and Jayne, a shadow detached itself and followed Jayne off the ship and onto Serenity.

Up on the bridge, both River and Kaylee felt something. Something Kaylee hadn't felt in a long time. One of the reasons she liked to travel so much was that it cut down her chances of meeting what caused the feeling.

River, though, had never felt anything like it, well not never - Kaylee felt like it sometimes, like when she talked to the ship.

But this was different - it was cold, like the eyes of the doctors that hurt her. Not evil; just didn't care about you and could and would do anything to you and there wasn't anything you could do about it.

"Gwai-gwai long duh dong!" Mal said as he walked up on the battle scene.

"Mal," Simon called out, "You haven't seen anything yet," while pointing down the hall way towards Zoe.

She stood in the middle of the hall looking at the floor. Boot tracks could been seen going through the pools of blood.

"This is some deep go-se," she said, looking up at her captain. "One man did this."

"What? No way," Mal said. The only time he'd seen something like this was when River had stopped the Reavers from taking them. But there was only one of her, and she was on the ship.

"Yes, way sir," Zoe said. "He was still here, too.

"Or at least he was," she said as she pointed to an airlock. The airlock had been built right into the wall over a doorway. But it not part of the original design of the place. It was a haphazard job, spot-welded into place.

"This is just...odd," Mal said, looking around at the empty room.

After that, the crew returned to Serenity. But once on their ship, Mal kept feeling like he was being watched. Shadows didn't move right. Some seemed to move when nothing was there to move them.

Zoe had picked up on his unease and Jayne was just plain jumpy. It was a feeling over the whole ship. And after Mal had Kaylee make sure there was no booby traps on this ship, they were off. Mal hoped that some distance from the derelict would ease the mood some.

But it didn't.

Simon was in the hold with the box. Mal gave him the job of opening it. He had some experience with this type of device, as it was similar to the one that carried his sister in, just an older model.

But it still was cutting edge. Whoever bought it got their money's worth. Even being at least 10 years old, it was still better that anything he had ever seen. And the art work on the outside, was fantastic. A flowing script of some kind that seems to bend light and fold in on itself.

Kaylee had taken one look at the box and begged the Captain not to open it; she told him something was wrong with it. What was written on it while it wasn't evil but it wasn't nice either.

Who or what ever was in the box wasn't meant to get out by their selves, and only a good person could open it from the outside. Not that she could tell the others what it said. They should just drop it off on the next planet and leave it. She was hard at the arm twisting and lying to get the captain into getting rid of it.

Jayne and Zoe were with them, in the dinning area, while River was on the control deck sitting a course to Windfall, since they had cargo to drop there. It was even legal this time. Just a mail run, presents and some such.

"Captain, there is just something wrong with it," Kaylee was saying once again. There was a feel in the air, one she had not felt in quite a while, one that usually made her run the other way.

She had stayed on ships so long so she could avoid them. And run, when she couldn't.

"And just what's wrong with the box, little Kaylee?" Mal asked. He always talked to her like she was his kid sister. Sometimes, it was nice; others, it made her want to grab a wrench and knock him up side the head.

Times like now.

Zoe sat in a chair across from them watching the door. She kept getting feelings from it. A shadow that didn't move right, a sound from nothing. Then she felt the eyes on her back more than once. She noticed Jayne, too, had moved to watch the door.

Even Mal had moved to look at the doorway. But there was nothing there to see.

"We don't know what's in it. It could be bad. Just get rid of it." When Kaylee had said that, the malice from the doorway intensified.

"Well," Mal said, looking once again at the door, his hand going to his pistol, "the doc is opening it. If there is nothing of value in it, out the hatch, ok?"

As soon as Mal said that, there was movement at the door heading toward the hold. The movement caused the two soldiers and gun fighter to draw their pistols. All pointed at he door.

"Captain," Zoe said, "We're in Indian country."

"Yep," Mal said. "Get everyone together."

"It's heading toward the hold," Zoe said, a slight tremor in her voice. She knew Simon was there alone, and unarmed.

As a group, they moved off toward the hold.

Simon was just entering the last of the codes. And as the box opened, he heard something hit the deck behind him, turning around to see...nothing.

"What the..." Simon whispered to himself. A blur was moving toward him, and then he saw an armored fist. Then he only saw darkness. But before the darkness claimed him, he saw River moving down the stairs.

"Simon!" River called as she saw he brother fall.

Then she felt it. Someone was here. And the box was open. A hand was reaching out. A girl's hand.

Then a blur was in front of her. She struck out at whatever it was it that had hurt her brother. Just then, the others came into the hold to see River dancing around her brother. The only thing that was there was a blur moving with her.

"Oh, Shit!" Kaylee said. That feeling was back, and stronger than ever, and she needed her weapon. She turned and ran. To the others, it seemed like Kaylee had just been overcome and ran for it.

The rest just pointed their firearms at the fight.

"What is the Goram thing?" Jayne asked, not taking his eyes away from the fight.

"Stealth suit," Mal said.

He had seen one in use in the war. The Alliance would send their scout out in them. One scout could kill a lot of men at night with one of the those suits. But they were expensive, so that could only mean more bounty hunters looking for the Tams.

And that just wasn't going to happen on his ship.

Then the fight shifted again, and something heavy hit River knocking her back, but not out. Then a trio red beams shot out and hit her between the eyes and locked there. River froze, she knew what the beams meant.

"Captain, where is she?" a metallic voice said.

"Which she did you have your mind set on?" Mal said, trying to delay as long as he could. This was a good trap that they had walked into.

"That would be me, Captain." Kaylee said. She was standing below them, and she was holding a Goram big knife. "I am Tara Maclay. I am not looking for heads."

"Came a long from the whorehouse, haven't you?" the Voice said.

"How'd..." Tara asked.

"Are you calling Kaylee a whore?" Mal asked

"This is not your business, Captain," the Voice said again. Even through the mask, the voice had a tinge of humor.

"It is when you're talking about my people," Mal said. The anger in his voice was getting stronger. Tara knew if she didn't calm him down soon, he would do something stupid, and one look at the blur before her, she knew a lot of people would be dead.

"Captain," Tara said looking up at the Mal, while keeping the blur in her vision. "Stay out of this."

"Hey," the Voice said again. "Tar, been a long time."

As the voice stopped talking, the blur became solid, the armored figure stood straight in font of her. A projection cannon of some kind on his shoulder was still pointed at River, who was still watching him and her brother. And across his chest was a crisscross of bandoleers, with throwing spikes and ammo clips. He had a large hand gun at his right side, and an very old looking rapier on the other.

"Do I know you?" Tara asked.

The figure reached up and pulled off his helmet. The dark hair fell free.

Tara gasped, it was him. Xander.

At the same time up on the landing behind the crew stood Inara. She, too, gasped. It was him.

John.

Her John Crichton.

Tara dropped her sword and ran to Xander, throwing her arms around him.

"Huh?" Mal said a look of shock on his face as his little Kaylee jumped the stranger with the big guns.

And got more and more confused as the seconds went by, and Kaylee started to kiss the guy, then wrap her legs around him, looking like she was pulling him into her as far as she could.

"Hey. Mal?" Jayne asked.

"Yeah?" Mal said, still looking at what was going on.

"You know what hell is going on?"

"Nope," Mal relied. "You know, Zoe?"

"No, Sir," Zoe said with a calm voice. "Just as freaked as you guys."

"Oh," Mal said. "Ok."

Down in the hold, Tara dropped down from Xander and started looking him over then. She balled her fist up and hit him in the jaw as hard as she could. The crew that stood over them, could hear the bone breaking from where they stood.

"What the hell was that for?" Xan mumbled as he held his jaw. Waiting for it to re-heal.

"You left me," Tara said in a low menacing. A voice that no one on board could believe came from their little Kaylee.

"And you killed Dawn."


	11. Chapter 11

Title: Cowboy in the Black b

Author: Robert Jackson

Email: to archive: yes, just let me know where.

Pairing/Characters: Xander and others

Rating: R (adult language) maybe a little high but safe than sorry

Summary: The explanations start.

Warnings: Takes place after the Firefly movie.

A voice called from the box. "Can I come out? Kind of cold in here."

"Dawn?" Tara asked.

"So I killed her, huh?" Xander asked. He glanced around the rest of the crew were watching them closely. His eyes seemed to stop on Inara, who smiled at him, then moved on.

"But there was blood everywhere..." Tara said.

Mal looked between Jayne and Zoe. Blood?

"Excuse me," Mal called down to the two old friends. "Could you stop pointing the blaster thing at my pilot? Or are we going to have to be making some more trouble?"

Xander looked once again at he captain. Then over at River who was still frozen looking at him, the red dots still lined up on her.

"Sorry about that," Xander said, then the lights blinked off. "Tara, do we have a place to talk in private?"

"I think this is private enough," Tara said. Then she looked at Mal and the rest. "On second thought, let's take this to the infirmary."

Tara reach out and grabbed Xander by the hand and pulled him from the hold. Mal looked at the rest of his crew, then down at the doctor who was now being held by his sister.

"What the Ma de is going on here?" Mal called out. This morning it was simple, he was the Captain. And everyone was who they said they were. Now he had another girl that came out of a box, a man in a stealth suit, and his little Kaylee, his little sister, was not who she was supposed to be.

"No idea," Zoe said looking over at Jayne, who just shrugged his shoulders and gave an 'I don't know' grunt.

"Why did he call her Terror?" Mal asked getting more confused.

"He said Tara," Inara said from behind Mal, who jumped and spun around to face her with a cry.

"Woman!" Mal yelled out, "Don't sneak up on a man when he has a gun in his hand!"

"When don't you have a gun in your hand?" Inara asked with a innocent look.

Mal was just about to tear into her when a voice called out from the box again.

"Hey Xan," Dawn called again. "Umm, it's really cold. I need some clothes."

"Help her out," Mal said. "I need to talk to my mechanic about lying to me."

With that, Mal turned and walked toward the infirmary. Soon he was followed by Simon and Zoe.

But when they got to the door, it was closed and locked. From the outside, the crew could see Kaylee yelling at the guy with the big guns, who just smiling at her like it was the cutest thing he had ever saw. He even kept the smile after another slap.

"Just what is going on here?" Simon whispered to himself.

"Why can't we hear what they're talking about? This is not a soundproof room," Mal said. "And how are the doors locked? The lock's broke."

Simon just stood there watching Kaylee. This was not the same girl that he had known. She was standing different. Talking different.

Just then the girl from the box stormed up to the door and grabbed the handle.

Which didn't move.

Inside the Infirmary

"So why did you leave me?" Tara asked, her arms crossed at her waist; one hand still held her short sword.

"Not given a real choice," Xander said looking at her with a smile. "I did want to take you with me but I heard and saw you with Willow."

"With Willow?" Tara drew herself up.

Flash Back

The meeting between Angel and crew had sucked green donkey dicks.

Xander had only been there a few minutes when Buffy and the Sunnydale people had shown up. At first, they were all so nice, butter wouldn't melt in their mouths. But it soon changed.

Tara had talked Xander in making up, so he was willing to do that. For her. But as soon as Buffy had heard him, she pulled her attitude on him.

He was going to come home.

He was going to move in with them.

They would watch out for him.

Only thing she didn't say anything about was the leash that she was going put on him or what color it would be.

He was not going to be anyone's lap dog.

Those days were over. He could, maybe be friends with them.

And to be honest with himself, he missed them. But it was not going back to the old ways with her running the show and him following blindly.

So he had gotten up and walked away.

Tara followed him, as the others called him back.

Demanded him to come back.

"Xan," Tara said to him. "Come back. We can work this all out."

"Nope," Xander said looking back at the table his eyes dark with rage. "I will not go back to that."

"Please, they're your friends." Tara was almost begging him.

"You go back." Xander said after a bit. "I need to blow off some steam."

"Ok," Tara told her lover. "See you back at the hotel room?"

"Yeah, I might be a little late. But I will see you there."

Tara and Xander separated; neither knew that would be the last time either

would see each other for a long time.

Xander had moved out on to the dance floor and worked his way across to the bar. He moved up and into an empty seat. There was a guy in the next seat who looked like he was right out of a 70's pimp movie.

"Hello, Xander," the man said with a Brooklyn accent.

"You know me?" Xander was slightly worried. His face had, at one time, been plastered all over the country but most people tend to forget the flavor of the hour.

"Name's Whistler." As he said that, Xander recalled who this was. A go to guy for the higher ups.

"And I've got a story for you about a little girl."

After the conversation with Whistler, Xander was in shock. How could someone do this to me, to her? To all three of them.

"So, buddy boy," Whistler said with a slow friendly drawl, "You could stay here, help out Rat Breath over there. Then lose the world. Or you can do this. And maybe never get this chance again. Your choice."

"What about Tara?" Xander said looking over to where Tara and Willow were talking. The two witches had moved away from the group and were having a heated conversation.

"You COULD take her with you, but she needs to be here. There's something that she needs to do," the demon told him.

"I want her," Xander whispered. "She is the only true friend I have left."

"That's not true," Whistler waved his hand over the glasses, and a picture of the people across the room appeared in it, complete with sound. "They are still you friends, but there is a darkness on your soul that's not letting them be. You need to remove it. And you can't do that here."

In the glass, he could hear Buffy complaining to Faith about Xander why he left and why he wouldn't come back. Faith was standing up for him trying to explain, that he was in pain and just striking out at everyone.

Then the glass shifted to Willow and Tara.

"...I do love you and want to be with you. But..." Tara was saying to the redhead.

"But Xander.." Willow said,

"He needs me." Tara said,

Needs her…not that she loves him, that he needs her.

But she had said she loved Willow. And in his soul, he loved Willow still. She was his sister, friend, his family for as long as he could remember.

That was what made his up his mind.

"Ok," Xander said in a very sad voice, "You got yourself a babysitter."

End Flash back

Just then the girl from the box came in. She stormed up to the door and grabbed the handle. Which didn't move.

"Ohhhh," the short woman said, "I am going to kick your ass, Xand."

She mumbled a few words then pulled the door open and stepped into the room.

As the door opened, the crew could hear Kaylee yelling.

"You left me because some demon told you a sob story about a girl?"

She was in a rage. "You broken dick, cum sucking bastard! Why did you leave me there? I would have gone with you! I understand that you didn't want to be around Buffy and Willow. But come on, this is me! I wanted to go with you!"

Then she paused. "If you had heard the whole conversation with Willow, I said, I do love him and you don't need me the way he does, but I do love you and want to be with you."

Just the door opened surprising both Immortals.

"TARA!" The short woman screamed and dove on the Kaylee, just as the door closed behind her before anyone could react.

Through the windows, the crew of Serenity could see the young woman knock down Kaylee with a hug, and Kaylee start to laugh.

"I am getting mighty tired of asking this, but what the hell is going on here?" Mal asked, as he walked to the door and hit as hard as he could, causing the three in the room to look up at the window in the door.

Inside the infirmary.

Xander had just stood there while Tara screamed at him.

He knew he deserved it. And it had been a long time. But the real reason he took it, was she was just so damn cute, screaming at him like that and the words she was using. He figured he was really glad he didn't know what some of them meant.

After all, translator microbes only go so far.

Just about the time she had calmed down the door opened, and there stood a pissed off Dawn. She shot a look of pure murder at Xan, then noticed who he was talking to.

"TARA!" Dawn screamed as she launched herself at her old friend.

Xander just sat back and watched as Dawn knocked the surprised Immortal off her feet and on to the floor where they started to roll around, laughing at each other.

"You know with some baby-oil, this could be fun to watch," Xander commented with a grin. Both girls blushed, then started to attack him, when the door boomed.

All three looked up at the small window in the door to see the Captain standing there with a pissed off look. Looking at the windows, they could see the rest of the crew watching them through the other windows.

"This going to be so much fun," Tara muttered.

"So don't tell them," Xander said, looking at his student.

"They are my new family," Tara said. "You don't lie to family."

"Ok," Dawn said, looking between the two. "Don't lie. Just don't tell them everything."

"Ok," Tara said. "But don't think you're off the hook. I still have a few more things to call you before I can get over my being mad at you."

Xander just flinched.

Tara looked at the door and waved her hand, and the people outside heard the door click open.

"Not the only witch here," River whispered to Mal as she walked into the room.

"Ok," Mal said as he came in the room. "Just what the hell is going on here? I have asked that question too many times, so don't make it a third time."

"Captain," Tara said "These are some old friends"

"We got that part," Jayne said, with his usual sarcastic snarl.

"Shh, you peeker, "River said.

Dawn blushed, looking around anywhere but at the big gun man.

A growl started from Xander. Dawn turned and looked at him.

"Stop that," she said, halting Xander's growling. "If you hadn't left me in the box without any clothes, I wouldn't have had anyone peeking at me."

"Sorry," Xander said looking ashamed. "Got caught up in the minute."

"Don't mind you seeing me naked, after all you've seen it all before," Dawn said. "But that doesn't mean I want everyone to see what I got."

"Alexander Harris!" Tara began looking at him with blood in her eyes. "You've seen her naked?"

"Yep," Xander said.

"I'm going to kill you." Tara yelled at him, "She is a child!"

"Excuse me!" Dawn said putting her hands on her hips, pulling the robe that Inara had given her tight around her in a way that showed off her body - her oh-so-not a child's body. "I am NOT a child."

"Stay out of this, Dawn." Xander growled for the first time, and Tara could see he was really angry. "You think I would take advantage of a child?"

Xander's voice was calm and showed no sign of the anger that was there, but the two girls that knew him, knew it was just under the surface.

Mal had just about enough, these people weren't even looking at him anymore. And how was he going to find out what's going on without someone looking at him?

"YOU shush!" Mal yelled at them.

When all three people's eyes were once again on him, he went on.

"WHAT. IS. GOING. ON?" Mal all but yelled at them, making sure to speak loudly and slowly. River had pulled back again from the kid in the armor. She looked scared, and the was a first. Hell, she had jumped into a pack of Reavers and not been really bothered, but now she was pulling back from the kid.

The kid had turned his eyes on Mal. Those eyes - he had seen more life in a week old corpse than what could be seen in them. But he knew of a few people that had those eyes. Zoe had had them in the war.

"Sorry, Captain," Xander said, "Did you say something?"

"I...What the.." Mal stuttered.

"Xander, quit scaring the Captain," Tara said. "He's a nice guy. And we're so going talk about Naked Dawns!"

"It's not what you think," Xander said, once again ignoring the Captain.

"No, it was never was with you, now was it?" Tara asked.

Over the years she had gotten more and more mad with Xander. She knew he was alive; all her tracking spells said he was, but they were masked.

And the only person that could do that was Xander himself.

She hadn't even felt his Quickening until she had gotten far closer than she should have before she detected anything.

"So Anyway." Mal started again, "You know little Kaylee, huh?"

"Kaylee?" Both Xander and Dawn asked, looking to each other then back to the Captain. "Who?"

"Me," Tara told them.

"Kaylee?" Xander said, "What kind of name is Kaylee?"

"It was a girlfriend's name," Tara said, her eyes narrowing.

"Oh," Xander said. "Sorry."

"Just watch what you say," Tara said looking Xander up and down, "I still don't know if I am going to kill you yet."

"Just don't shoot me in the back."

"We'll see."

"Girlfriend? Kaylee?" Simon asked. Who was this person?

"Yes, girlfriend." It had been a while, and she had been on a guy trip lately. But she still wanted women. The only guy she had wanted for any length of time was Xander, the other guys were of the moment. Something nice to take to bed, then move on. The only other guy she had liked in more than a friend way was Simon. She so didn't want to hurt him. But she could see it coming.

"Just who are you?" Simon asked. It was like they had a Government agent on the ship.

"You know who I am. You all do," Tara paused. "Just there is more to me than you thought."

"I have a few questions," Mal asked, pointing at Dawn. "First, why was she in the box?"

"I was taking her somewhere safe," Xander said, looking over the Captain. If Tara was with them, they had to be good people.

"Safe?" Zoe asked. "Safe from who?" God help them if it was another runaway girl from the Central Planets.

Xander drew himself up and looked at Dawn, who had paled.

"You don't need to know," Xander said. "Just drop us off at the next planet and we'll be on our way."

"You're leaving me again?" Tara asked with wide eyes.

It kind of hurt Simon, even though he was not with Kaylee anymore. She had never talked about him that way when they broke up. It was like it was no big deal. They would be friends and that was that.

But this guy had walked back into her life and from the sounds, she was willing to walk away with him.

"Got to," Xander replied. "Don't want to. But got to,to keep Dawn safe."

Dawn looked at her old friend.

"Glory is after me," Dawn almost whispered.

"No," Tara almost yelled. "Glory is dead. We killed her and Ben. They're gone."

"Gone," Xander said looking at his old lover, "just like us. Ben is one of us."

"No, he couldn't have been." Tara seemed almost in a panic.

"Tara." Xander calmly looked at her and Dawn pulled closer to her. "Ben was one of us, that why he could carry her. A normal human would have burned out. The stress in the changes alone would have done anyone else in."

"What the hell dose that mean?" Mal asked, looking around to see if anyone else understood.

"Where do you need to go?" Tara asked. She would help them now. No matter what. Glory. God help us all.

"Hey," Mal told these two. "This my ship; it goes where I tell it to go."

"We need to get to Hera, a place there called Serenity Valley," Xander said as the whole crew got quiet.

"What you need to go there for?" Mal asked.

"A way out of here. I need to get there soon."


	12. Chapter 12

Don't know Chinese, so all Chinese will be between .

Mal stood in the dining area watching. His skin was all but crawling watching Kaylee talking to the asshole who had ghosted on to his ship. His Home.

From a fast glance at Zoe, he could tell she was just as weirded-out as he was. Jayne stood back at the door, holding his auto-fire on them. Jayne was a simple man. Closer to an animal than man than anyone Mal has ever met. Keep him fed and warm, let him get a little frilly every now and then, and he was happy.

And with the talk about reavers and girls in a boxes, it was getting him a might worked up. Looking back at the boy at the table again, he wondered, why did it seem all his troubles always start with a girl in a box?

He seemed harmless enough, but the old bullet wound was getting a might ticklish, and when that happened, something was going to go wrong. Hell, even Inara was acting stranger than he could ever remember, even back when she was doing her Campion thing.

She was smiling at the boy.

Not the 'I think he's funny' smile, or even her 'this is my Client' smile, but that 'I got a secret' smile that all women seem born being able to do. But then, she was staying out of the boys' sight.

This was just getting him more worked up. How in the hell did a man do business with all this female wiles' stuff going? Between Kaylee and Inara, he was extra glad that River and Zoe were still acting normal. Well, normal for them, that is.

"Now what the hell is going on?" Mal finally let it explode. This was just getting to be too much.

"Uh, getting to know my friend again?" the boy said with a smile. To which Kaylee hit him on the arm.

"You be quiet," Kaylee said, giving the boy a death glare. "Captain, don't mind him. He thinks he's more funny than he really is."

"Hey!" Xander said, only to have the girl from the box add, "She's right. He's not that funny. At least, not on purpose."

"Little girl," Xander said, looking at the traitor, "I can still take you across my knee!"

"Oooo," Dawn replied with an impish grin, "do I get to wear the school girl outfit too?"

To which Kaylee just glared, and Mal could almost hear her teeth grind from where he stood. Jayne immediately stood straighter, watching the trio more closely.

Great. Sex and violence. A perfect combination.

Mal just sat back; this was getting out of hand.

First off, Kaylee wasn't Kaylee.

Then there was another girl in a box. (And that worked out so well, last time, hadn't it?)

Then a boy in a stealth suit that seemed to know Kaylee, back before she was Kaylee.

Now kink got thrown in as well!

"Hey this not a whorehouse!" Mal called out.

"Hey Mal?" Jayne asked from the doorway, his weapon shaking a bit. "Why is this guy's shadow moving ?"

"What?" Mal asked, looking at the gunman, then back at the boy. Shadows move with the light, that was natural enough.

Then he also noticed the shadows at the boys feet were kind of wiggling around and seemed to be looking at him. And that sure enough wasn't natural.

With a curse, Mal's pistol was drawing a stead bead on the boy.

"What are you?"

"Nothing that you will be needing to understand," Xander answered.

Like all shadow mages, their shadows often had minds of their own; it was of the tell-tale signs that gave them away.

"You need to get me and Dawn here to Hera."

"Why?"

Reavers fleet

The ships flitted here and there, waiting for one of their fellows to show weakness, to zig when it should have zagged - anything to give a reason to attack.

The only ship never attacked sat in the middle o them all.

At one time it was a cruise liner, full of happy families. Now, it was a ship of the dead, the dying and the insane. The massive engines that had been mounted to the ship were not the original ones. These came from an Alliance ship that had wandered too close.

"Mistress," a voice that had only screamed for a long time croaked out, "she's here."

"Where?" a regal voice demanded of her slave.

"That way."

"Well? What are you waiting for? Go get my key!" The anger in the voice could be felt by all in the room.

"At once, My Glory."

Once the captain of the cruise ship left, the voice could be heard muttering to itself.

"Monkeys. They're such simple pets."

Then Glory, insane hell goddess, turned to look around her room. Looking at the others, the ones from whom she had sucked their brains, walking around cleaning up her rooms.

"You! Prepare my bath."

"A whole bunch of bad is on its way right now," Xander said tensely, "Followed by a bunch of pain. You just need to get us to Stone Ring on Hera. And we'll be out of your hair."

"Battle of Stone ring?" Zoe asked just to be clear.

"Yep" Xander said, looking at the black woman.

"That's not possible. The radiation there is lethal," Mal said grimly.

Stone ring was an outcropping in a Serenity valley. It was also the site of some of the deadliest fighting of the war.

Both sides had nuked it, then sent in troops. Stealth suits and power armor, roller and hover sleds with heavy weapons – they had all gone in.

Neither side had won that battle, although it had gutted the independents and slowed down the Alliance troops. It was the reason the whole campaign had fallen apart on that world.

"Not a problem. Just get us within driving distance," Xander said.

"What's at the ring?" Mal knew that there wasn't a ship or anything else. Most of the side of valley was nothing but radioactive glass.

"Just tell him," Tara told her old teacher. "He's more stubborn than you are."

"It's a trap. Right now, you have the whole Reaver fleet coming here. And I need to get there fast."

"Reavers!" Jayne looked pale just at the thought of the reavers were coming. "Mal, just dump this guy and haul our asses the other way."

"Shut it, Jayne," Mal snapped, looking at the hired gun. The he turned to look at the Immortal. "And just how do you know that they are on their way here? And what's with your shadow having a mind of its own."

"You opened the box."

"What's that got to do with it?"

"My God," Tara said final getting it. "Glory."

"Yes," Dawn said quietly.

"Who the (fucking Hell) is Glory?" Mal almost screamed.

"Not your business," Xander standing up. "I have taken all I will take from you. You keep screaming at me and Dawn, then we will have words. And most of then from you will be 'God, no.' Do you understand me?"

"This is my ship that you're on," Mal drawing himself up. "I'll talk to anyone the way I want to on it."

"You came aboard my ship, cutting through the locks, wanting to steal my things, opened the dinner bell to Glory, and have the nerve to think you're in charge here? The only reason you're not all dead right now is Tara here."

"Boy," Mal almost growled. "You threaten me again, I might take offence to it."

"If you keep up with the big talk," Xander pause and held up his hand, a small box was blinking in it," I will detonate a bomb I have hidden on this tub. And you all can breath space for a while. Me and Dawn will be alive. Tara, too, but you and your crew will be dead."

Three hours later

Mal sat on the bridge.

They were heading to Hera.

Not that he wanted to go. But he knew from the way Kaylee was acting that the boy would do as he threatened, if they didn't go. He had Jayne and Zoe go over the ship, but so far nothing had turned up. No bomb and no sight of the boy being anywhere on the ship.

He would usually have Kaylee doing the looking, but he couldn't trust her right now, and that bothered him more than he though it would. She wasn't giving him straight answers, not anymore.

Neither Kaylee or the boy would even say when they met, though from what he had heard, they knew each other for a long time and that Dawn girl was from their home world as well.

And River would just give the boy odd looks when she was around him. One moment she would almost be afraid of him, then the next, it was like she wanted to crawl up in his lap and sleep.

Talking about dark lighting storms.

And when she was around the Girl, talking about pretty green light.

It was just too much.

And now, it was River all over again, like after Mal had found out that his little albatross wasn't what he thought she was.

A weapon, not a hurt little girl.

It shook him up. But he could work around that, use her for the betterment of the ship.

But now little Kaylee wasn't what he thought, either.

She, too, was a soldier, of some kind. And not as young as she had acted. She had fooled him. Hell, she had fooled Early when he had tied her up in the engine room, threatening to rape her.

He had to think. Should he even keep her on? Who else wasn't what he thought they should be?

Thinking those thoughts got Mal thinking about Book, who went to his grave without telling Mal who he really was.

Mal got up and he needed someone to talk to. Someone who had at least been honest with him.

Inara.

While she might not tell him everything, at least she was what she was and always been honest with him on that.

Xander sat at the table, Tara watching him. River had taken Dawn to get more clothes.

"So naked Dawns?" Tara asked.

"Yes."

"I know its been a long time, and we each have had other lovers," Tara paused, "But Dawn? Setting aside the fact that you killed her. You babysat her."

"Nope, I never did," Xander sighed, looking around the room. "Never met her till after my first death. She was created after I became Immortal."

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Flash back

On the road to Texas.

Xander wondered as he walked across the salt flats. The mountains looked a lot closer than he thought they actually were. Here he was, with no water and just his bloody prison clothes.

He had fainted from the heat at least three times. But every time he awoke, he felt better, just thirsty. His blisters were gone, only to start forming again once he got up. He was getting close to another fainting spell, he could feel it coming. The cramping, the dry mouth.

Then it happened. Xander Harris died for the fourth time, due to the heat.

And while he was dead, the world changed.

Sunnydale.

Buffy walked out of her mother's room. Ever since they had heard about Xander's death, the Scoobies have been a little off. They just didn't have the fun like they used to. Riley was going to take her out tonight; it was the first time in a while that she was getting out just to do something other than Slay.

They were having some problems lately, due to her not telling him about Xander. He might have been able to pull some strings and get him out, if he had known, but now it was too late.

"I'm outta here. Riley and I are going to the movies," Buffy called to her mom as she walked down the hall.

"Okay. Have a good time," Joyce called back to her daughter.

"What are you doing here?" Buffy asked, as she walked past an open door.

The young girl turned to look at Buffy, just as her mom called out again.

"Buffy? If you're going out, why don't you take your sister?"

To which both girls call out. "MOM!!"

End flashback.

"I was dead when Dawn was created," Xander said, a sad smile on his face. "All those great memories she has about me, I don't. To me, she's just another girl."

"But..."

"And another thing," Xander said. "Just because I have seen her naked doesn't mean I have done anything with her. Who do you think put her in the box? I have seen her without clothes on more than a few times, and she has also seen me."

Tara looked down a little embarrassed by the thoughts that had run through her head.

"Got a question for you," Xander asked, " You know a few things about magic, right?"

Tara nodded, kind of affronted by the question, and not understanding where this was going.

"Ok. What do you need to create life?" Xander's dark eyes seemed to look into her soul.

"Well, you needed to start with a male and female combination," Tara replied.

"Yes, those great monks took Buffy and some guy and used them to make Dawn. Otherwise, you would just have had a clone of Buffy. Right?"

"Well, yeah," Tara replied again, but this time a sinking feeling was entering her stomach.

"Guess who the daddy is?" Xander said with a bitter smile, seeing that the blonde had already worked it out in her mind.


	13. Chapter 13

Inara sat in her shuttle. She had taken it back from Mal, renting it for a little discount because of her wanting to come back and him wanting her back. It was nice, home again, her wall hangings back in place making it seem like nothing had changed.

A small beep drew her attention back to the low table that she had set out with the tea ceremony. Smiling down at the small tea urn in front of her, she slowly poured herself a small amount and waited. He should be here any moment.

Just then Mal burst into her shuttle.

"Why, Captain, no knock?" Inara said with a smile, not even jumping as the tall man moved into the room.

"You know him?" Mal demanded. There was no way she wouldn't know who HIM was.

"Yes," Inara replied. "Tea?" she asked with a motion at the small tea cup sitting across from her.

"Do I look like I need some tea?" Mal raged, at the seated woman.

"As a matter of fact you do. Tea calms the nerves, and eases the tensions of the day away," Inara said with a small smile and calm voice.

Mal glared at the woman. He hated her when she acted this way. So smug, so sure of herself.

"You friend threatened to kill us all and you sit here calm as can be," Mal finally said after he got his emotions under control again.

"Yes he did." Inara said coolly. "But you're taking him were he wants to go, so he won't hurt us."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," She said. "John won't hurt us, unless you start something."

"John? I thought his name was Xander?"

"It was John when I knew him."

"Where did you met him?" Mal asked. Maybe if he could get a feeling of the guy, maybe he could work a way out of this mess.

"John was a firster at the Temple," Inara said. "He was my firster as a matter of fact."

Xander stood on one of the catwalks over the main hold of the ship. Below him, he watched as River and Simon looked through some of the bins for castaway clothes that Dawn could wear. Passengers always left something when they reached their destinations. Not much, but some clothing, a knickknack or two.

Xander had left all of Dawn's clothes on Farscape when he had followed her box on board. It was something she wouldn't soon forget, either. And she constantly reminded him of that fact.

So, he stood back and made promises about new clothes and shoes when they finally got out this. Definitely not something he was looking forward to, but he did leave her favorite leather pants behind. So he would have to suck it up.

Tara walked up beside him.

"So, she's your and Buffy's daughter, huh?" she finally asked. It had hit her kind of hard. Immortals could never have kids, so she had given up the idea of children a long time ago. And here it was, hitting her in the face.

"Yep. Although she doesn't think of it that way exactly." Xander paused and looked down at Dawn as pulled a shirt up to her chest to see if it would fit her. "She had a great mom - Joyce. I am so not the father type, and Buffy – well, you know Buffy."

Just then. A shout range out.

"Mal! Stop!"

Xander turned just in time to see fist heading for him, and in a instant, he knew he had screwed up. He had dropped his guard. The thought of seeing Tara again had caused him to forget everything he'd learned. He was holding this ship hostage, and he was just sitting around talking like old home week.

Not smart.

The blow hit him, knocking him up and over the railing. His last thoughts as he fell toward the deck were, Oh, this is going to hurt.

Tara stood looking down at the body of her friend, drawing in a deep breath.

"Get out of here, Mal. When he gets up he is going to be so pissed, I don't know if I can control him."

Mal stood there feeling a bit better. He killed that hijacking, child-raping Son of a Bitch.

"He's dead. Don't matter if his pissed 'cause, you know, he's dead," Mal said looking down at the body. He noticed Simon looking him over then shaking his head.

"Yep. Dead."

Earth that was.

Xander stood outside Giles' apartment. He had been here for an hour. The air was thick with moisture a sure sign of rain on its way. Through the window he could just make out Giles sitting at the table, eating a meal with Dawn.

He had left LA a few hours ago, moving as fast as he could. Tara would be safe with Willow and the others. But if Whistler was right, Dawn was in danger, and with her, Giles.

The rage he felt for the old man didn't lessen any of his feeling for him. He had been more of a father than his real father. And if the demon was right, Dawn was his daughter as well.

That was just too strange to be believed. Immortals just couldn't have kids before or after their first death. So, this was something that could never happened again.

Inside, the two started to laugh about something. Xander smiled; he hadn't heard that type of laughter in a while. It was nice.

Then it all changed.

Someone knocked on the front door, and as Giles opened the door, in poured these scabby Demons, Knocking Giles to the floor, then carrying off Dawn. It all happened before Xander could react.

Within a hour, The Scoobies had returned and started to tear the town apart. Xander stood back, watching the whole thing and waiting.

He was out of practice with the Sunnydale thing - hunting the unknown. He had started to rely to much on intel from other sources, and not his own searches.

But he finally found her.

Unfortunately, when he did, it was almost too late.

The tower was awash with fighting. Buffy and Faith were taking on Glory at the bottom and the others were fighting all over the place with the scabbies, so it was easy to sneak past them and up the ladders to the top platform.

At the top, Dawn was standing in tears at the edge of the platform. The tell-tell feeling of another Immortal rushed over him.

"Stop," an old man said, holding a knife to Dawn, looking Xander in the eye as the pain faded. "One more step and she dies."

Xander looked at her. He didn't know her, had never met before, but there was a recognition in her eyes - she knew him. He could almost hear her call him to him. But the sadness, the pain in her eyes was enough for him to do something, even if she was a stranger.

His soul might have been damaged by the darkness, but a little part deep inside shown through. His Boy Scout syndrome. Or as Angelus once said, the White Knight was still there.

"Huh," Xander said looking at the man. "Looks like it's what you're going to do, anyway."

"Well," the man said, "yeah. But it'll be lot less painful, if you don't interfere."

"Well, sorry. That's so not going to happen," Xander said drawing himself up. "I am Xander Harris, and I challenge you." With that, he drew his saber.

"Well, my boy, if that's the way you feel about it," the man said, then, with a vicious smile, he jammed the knife into Dawn who screamed in pain, her blood falling to the ground. Far below them, Buffy had just smashed Glory into the wall with the Troll hammer.

"Look!" She heard someone yell. Looking up, she could see two men fighting with swords on the top platform. She couldn't make them out exactly, only that they were not one of the Scoobies or any of Angel's group.

"Xander," Tara whispered.

"What?" Willow said, standing next to her one time lover. The last they'd seen him, Xander had disappeared at the Club in LA. As the figures moved around on the small platform, Willow could start to make out her one-time best friend.

Now he was here. Helping Dawn. She knew then, it would be alright - he had forgiven them. He was with them again.

Then it happened.

Xander stuck out and the Doc fell to his knees. And with a quick stroke, Doc fell headless from the platform. But as they watched, a vortex appeared beneath the platform and a fog appeared. As the Scoobies moved forward, lighting started to rain down on the tower.

From the ground they could hear screams, as with each bolt a new creature was let loose on the world.

"No!" Buffy screamed. Death was her gift. Dawn wasn't supposed to die, she was.

She moved, grabbing the hand rail to pull herself up.

Blood... it was all tied to Blood. She and Dawn had the same blood. She would die and Dawn would live.

But as she touched the metal rails, bolts of electrical power flowed down, knocking her away.

Looking up, she could still see but not hear what was going on.

On the tower

Xander looked down at the opening vortex as the Quickening drew around him. Soon, he wouldn't be able to do anything. Dawn lay at his feet, blood flowing from her stomach.

As the blood dropped from the deck, they struck the vortex and with each drop, a waver and shift rippled away, causing another bend in reality.

"Blood. It always was blood," Xander whispered.

Dawn looked up, a small smile on her pale face. Xander was here. That one thing made her feel safe again. He had always been there for her.

At least, she remembered him being there.

Xander felt a tug as his Quickening was being drawn away. And as he watched, the wound on Dawn was slowly healing.

As a dragon fell through the vortex and flew off, Xander looked around Sunnydale, watching as the lighting bolts struck.

As each bolt hit, something changed. Building became mountains full of demons, roads rivers of blood. The sky was burning with fire that fell and moved searching from mortals.

"Dawn, do you trust me?" Xander asked as her wounds closed.

"Of course," she replied without hesitation.

"I am sorry," he said driving his sword in to her.

Just as he drove the sword into her, the Quickening struck, bolt after bolt hitting him, driving him into Dawn, who screamed more and more as the power was driven into her.

Screaming until they both fell from the deck and into the vortex.

Below, on the ground, the Scoobies and Angel's group looked on as the vortex slowly closed.

And then the only thing that could be were the heartbreaking sobs of the Slayer, crying for her sister. Another friend she couldn't save.

"Dawn."

At the same time.

"So, Sam, what's up?" Col. O'Neill asked from his vantage point behind the captain.

"Nothing much. Just running a few test programs on the gate," Sam said with a smile. She knew the Col. had read the reports on what she was doing, but he still acted like he didn't know what was going on around the base.

Unnoticed by the personal around the base, a man in very loud clothing, something only a 1970's pimp would wear, was suddenly standing next to the mainframe. Looking up as if someone was talking to him, he touched the computer, then faded away.

Just as the man faded from sight, the power all over the base surged, blowing out lights, and tripping breakers. Then the gate started to spin.

"Carter!" O'Neill snapped. "What did you do?"

"It's an out-going wormhole," Samantha Carter told her superior officer as she looked over the readings from the computers before her.

"Where's it going?" Jack asked, looking at the readings and nodding his head to the tech, who hit the panic button closing the iris over the wormhole that the Stargate created. The tech closed the iris, waiting for confirmation before searching the logs for any reading to show someone had entered the gate room.

"Sir," Sam said, "these reading are not possible. We had two outgoing travelers, but the signal is scrambled. The readings say they were going to every Stargate we have on record and a few we don't."

Just as she finished her speech, the gate shut off and the room was quiet once again. Only the hum of the electrical lights could be heard as they charged to turn back on.

Jack was looking at his friend, with that 'what the hell?' look he had when some thing happened that he didn't expect.

Just as the General burst into the control room with his own questions.

It looked to be a long day for everyone on the base that day.

Serenity

Simon looked down at the broken man. Kaylee stood at the door looking on. River stood by Kaylee, looking between the two. Dawn was sitting and spinning in a chair nearby, only to stop every so often to look at the body. Mal was outside the door, scratching his head.

"He's dead, right?" he asked the room.

Kaylee rolled her eyes. River just looked at the Captain. It was the third time he had asked the question.

Behind him, Jayne and Zoe stood. Both were kind of tense. The boy was dead but they had still not found a bomb.

"Captain," Simon using his best doctor voice, "I can say, without any question, this man is dead. He has broken his neck in five places, fractured his skull in four places, driving bone shards into his brain. His spine was broken in two places and bone fragments from his ribs have been smashed into his heart and lungs. He's dead."

Only to hear Kaylee mumble, "For now."

"Well, is the ship going to blow up?" Jayne asked. It was a very important question to him.

"No. Didn't have time to push the button." Mal replied.

"Why didn't you just kill him from the start?" Jayne asked. "If this is all there is to it."

"We still don't know were the bomb is and I really don't want to fly around with a bomb that I don't know about, that could go off at any time," Mal explained to the man, not noticing the looks that Kaylee was giving him. "So, he didn't have time to push the button on his bomb. Now we have to find it and then dig it out without it blowing up the ship."

"Well, that may not be a problem," Simon said holding up the box that once held the button; the whole device was smashed flat. "I may not be a tech or anything, but looking at the this, it's just a box with a light switch on it."

"What? He scammed us?" Zoe asked.

"Looks that way."

Just then, Inara walked up and punched Mal, drawing stairs from everyone.

"What the (fucking hell) was that for?!?" Mal yelled as he held his face.

"Why did you kill him?" Inara said through clinched teeth.

"He raped you!" Mal screamed at her. The others looked at Inara, then at the body.

"When'd he have time do that?" Jayne asked Zoe, who just looked at her

captain.

"He never raped me," Inara said her dark eyes flashing. "He was my Firster."

"See, he raped you," Mal said, drawing himself up.

"Uh. What's a firster?" Jayne asked.

"When a companion first gets to the temple, they're usually a virgin," Inara explained. "A firster is the first man or woman that helps them through their first time. Usually he or she is the first one they have sex with. To help them experience all that they have been taught. John is my firster. And he did not rape me. In fact, it was one of the best times I have ever had."

"Talking to the choir," Kaylee said under her breath, drawing a look from both Simon and Zoe who stood close enough to hear her.

At the same time Jayne was saying, "Now that's a job I would like to have. All the virgins you want."

"Doesn't matter, he's dead." Mal said, as he turned to leave. He had a ship to run. The next planet they got to he would drop off the girl, Dawn, and then move on. She should be able to take care of herself.

"Doctor, drop the body out an airlock. We got places to be that's not here."

Kaylee drew herself up as did Dawn, both of them about to say something, when they heard someone say, "Dawn?"

Everyone all turned to the dead body, that had started to breath again.

With a gasping breath, Xander asked, "Where the hell are my clothes?"

Then as he opened his eyes, looking around, he saw Inara.

"Nara?" he said with a small smile, "My, you have gotten beautiful."

Then he noticed that everyone but Dawn and Tara were looking at him like a ghost. At the same time, the memory of the fall came back to him along with his nightmare of Sunnydale.

"That's my Xan," Tara said looking fondly at Xander. "Not two seconds from the grave and already flirting with a woman."

End part


	14. Chapter 14

word is thought.

word is Chinese.

Pain.

That was all Mal could feel as he woke up. Opening his eye, he looked around the sick bay. Simon was sitting on a stool in the back of the room, writing out a report of some kind. From the way he was feeling, most likely his medical report.

Sitting up, Mal winced as his sore muscles started to move. He also noticed that he couldn't open his left eye. Reaching up to feel around his face, he found that it was swollen shut.

What happened? Mal thought. Did I get caught in an Pro unification bar again on U-Day?

"Easy, captain," Simon said, as soon as he noticed Mal's movements.

"What Holy hell happened to me?" Mal asked, his thoughts a jumble. Just moving was the only thing he could think about right now.

"Xander," Jayne's voice from the doorway. "Damn, Mal, at least you could have marked him a little. Not that it would have matter, the way the guy heals."

"What?" Mal asked as it came back to him.

A few hours before

The Boy seemed to notice Mal for the first time. And he exploded from the bed. Before even Zoe could pull, a weapon the boy was on him. And the fight was on.

Now, Mal was a better brawler than your average thug. And, in your average bar fights or even most life and death deals, he was very good at finding out the weakness of opponents and using it against them.

But this time was different, and for the second time in his life, he was coming up short. Very short. The first time had been with the Agent in his fight over the transmitter, but he still had won in the end. But with this boy, he was outclassed in so many ways, from style to power of the blows. He moved like nothing anyone in the group had seen, with smooth lighting blows that were deceptive with the power behind them. Mal never even felt the hits 'til he was on the ground from the blow.

The blows started to add up and with each hit, his world got a little darker and the pain a little stronger, 'til finally the darkness claimed him. And just as the darkness claimed him, his last thought was, this was a first.

He had lost many fights in his life.

But this was the first time a naked man had done it, and that with three girls pulling the Boy back away from him, thought ran through his brain.

"Did I get beat down by a naked dead guy?" Mal asked the room.

"O yeah," Jayne said. "Then had a bunch of women folk save you," he added with a snicker.

"And you didn't do anything about it?" Mal said, laying back in the bunk as Simon looked him over.

"Hey, you pushed him off the catwalk," Jayne said as he looked at Mal. "Hey, about that - shouldn't he be, I don't know...dead?"

"Yeah, that had me a might puzzled myself," Mal replied to the gunman. Then Mal's wonderment over that faded, and he all but yelled, "and he has a bomb on my ship! And he raped Inara!"

"Mal, about that last," Zoe said, "You best not be say that again. At least around the women folk; you might end up less than a man." She nodded at his nether region.

"They wouldn't," Mal said. "Would they?"

"Well, River wouldn't, but the others - I don't know."

Xander sat in the dining area. Dawn and Inara were fixing dinner for everyone and Tara and Xander sat looking at each other.

"So where were we?" Tara asked with a sad smile. This whole meeting was not going the way she had hoped. Even with everyone thinking that Xander had killed Dawn and then finding out she was alive.

"Well, I don't really know. Just that we had started, that was all." Xander paused, then continued, "I wished that this all had gone a little different.

"Well, a lot different," he said, smiling back at her.

"Yeah," Tara nodded. "What with you trying to kill my captain."

"Hey," Xander said his eyes darkening. "He killed me first. All I was doing was returning the favor."

"Calm down, Xan!" Dawn called from the kitchen area.

"Sorry, little darling," Xander called back.

"I missed you," Tara said, trying to distract him as much as she could from killing Mal. She knew he would and could, if he was pissed enough.

"I missed you too," Xander said. "But I had to go. I had to protect Dawn."

"I understand," Tara said. She knew that even with the rage that Xander felt for his friends that he would never hurt them.

"The others went to their graves thinking that you killed Dawn," Tara said, after a pause. "You could have called us and told us she was alive and you were watching her."

"No, I couldn't," Xander in a whisper. "The powers sent us away from earth. A long way away."

"Just how far?"

"So far away that they never even had heard of humans," Dawn said. "We hooked up with this group or that one, 'til we found our way back to earth."

"You've been to earth?" Inara asked.

"Yes," Xander said smiling at Inara. "Just over 50 years ago."

"50 years?" Inara asked. She had known something was strange about him and Dawn. Hello? Just rose from the dead.

"Inara, we are Immortals," Xander said, waving his hands at Dawn, Tara and himself.

Soon, more and more questions flew from Inara. And Xander spent more and more time answering them. And the Immortals spent the rest of the evening talking with a old friend. Talking without secrets, past friends, hopes and dreams. It was something neither had done in along while.

All the while, Inara could sense something being held back. But she understood.

Some secrets could not be shared; some had to stay in the shadows.

The Next Morning.

Mal was still feeling like shit. The pain was gone, somewhat, but he knew he would be feeling it for a while. He was sitting on the bridge of his ship, one of the few places left to him that he could be alone.

Not that he was alone here. Zoe stood watch at the doorway, while River was in the co-pilot seat. While she would often pilot the ship, she never would sit in Walsh's seat. She had told Mal that there were too many bad feelings for her to sit there.

Jayne was watching the women folk and Xander – John - whatever the fuck his name was. They were all hold up in Inara's shuttle. And had been there all night.

Much to Jayne's delight. He had all these fantasies about what was going on in there. The only snag his mind had was that he wasn't in there.

"Mal!" Jayne's voice came over the inter-ship com. "He's out."

Outside of Inara's shuttle

Xander walked across the hold to the other shuttle. Inside, he would find what he was looking for - a com relay.

With it, he could access the cortex. He needed to make sure that the plan was a go. He could have used the one in Inara's shuttle, but Dawn would have heard his plan. All of the girls would have. And he knew that they would have tried to stop him.

"Contact 475," Xander called over the mike. The screen stayed blank, but it became more uniform - a sign that it was connected but not sending a signal.

"475," the calm voice said softly. "It's been a long time. Thought you wouldn't make it. You have the package?"

"Yes. Safe and sound. Though a bit lost at the time. Lost my ship, and I'm hitchhiking now. Got my baby read?"

"Yes, powered up and waiting. The ring has been prepared as well."

"Thanks," Xander paused. "You'll watch out for her if this falls apart?"

"Of course," the voice reassure him. "John, you know I would."

"Thanks, Harvey. You and Blue get ready. We'll be there in a few days."

On the bridge

Mal looked at the rest of his crew.

"What the hell was that about?" he asked.

"He's preparing to die," Kaylee said from the doorway. Zoe jumped a little at the voice. Kaylee had walked up on her while she was listening in on the wave.

"Thought he couldn't die, Mal asked, the sad voice from Kaylee causing a little of his anger to fade.

"No, we all die, Captain," Kaylee said. "Only some of us get to choose where."


	15. Chapter 15

Tara walked up to Xander as he was watching River dance around the hold. Most of the moves could be taken as just dance, but looking into the moves and placing someone else with her, he could see what they really were. A kata - she was practicing her fighting, and from what he had seen, she most likely didn't even know what she was doing.

"So she's a Slayer?" Xander asked without looking back at Tara. He had not let his guard down once since he awoken from his death at the hands of the Captain of this tub.

"She is a damaged girl," Tara said. She didn't think she was a Slayer, but she didn't really know.

"They're still looking for them, huh?" Xander turning to look at Tara.

"Yes," Tara knew who 'they' were. The Council. Or at least what it had become, at least in this system.

"They should have known by now that they won't find any. This is a closed system," Xander said, still watching the girl move. She was beautiful. She was a work of art. "You haven't told your crew the truth about this system?"

"No. What good would it do?" Tara said, looking around.

"Not a thing, but it's the truth." Xander said, finally looking at her. "And you know me and the truth."

"Yeah. Don't tell anyone anything close to the truth 'til you have to," Tara said, her eyes hardening.

"Well, yeah," Xander said with a smirk,. "It's worked for me so far."

"Ok," Tara replied, then crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Xander in the eye. "Who's Harvey?"

Xander stood a little straighter. "Were you were spying on me?"

"No, I was checking up on Mal," Tara said, still not looking away from her friend. "He was spying on you."

"Oh. That's ok, then," Xander replied. Then a thought struck him. "You haven't told Dawn, have you?"

"No. I want the truth from you, though, and a reason why I shouldn't tell her."

"We're going to lose," Xander simply. "Glory has too many people, that can fight too well. And Dawn has just me. This is the end of the road. There is nowhere to go anymore. It's going to be Glory or me."

Tara just stood there, watching Xander, who once again smiled and looked at River move around the hold.

"How can you be so calm about this?" Tara whispered.

"You've got to learn to enjoy what you have and live with what was given to you. I have." Xander's smile faded then. "I was looking forward to maybe a short life and dying helping Buffy. But she went to her grave hating me. I lost all my family with one shot."

Tara just looked at the man who had taught her so much when she needed help.

And didn't know if she could do the same.

For him or Dawn.

Zoe took her turn on the bridge. Mainly, her job was to check the readings from the scanners to make sure no space junk got too close. Or see if the reavers were around. Or anyone else that would want what they had.

Most nights in, there was nothing out there - just random blips.

But about an hour into her watch, things changed. There was a fast moving contact. Just as she noticed it, River started to scream.

Reavers.

Soon, the Bridge was full. Mal was watching through the windows of the cabin.

The Reavers' ship was within sight - just a blip of light. It was a small ship from the readings, but the radiation output was off the scale, even for Reavers.

"They're frying in their own juice over there," Jayne said.

Dawn looked at the ship and swallowed.

This is was all her fault. Even after all the years.

She knew that she could never stop running, because Glory would always come for her. She hurt every one around her.

Even people she didn't know.

They all died and she went on and on, bringing death to everyone that she came across.

Dawn slowly turned and walked off the bridge, returning to her room.

Tara watched her leave, then turned back to the ship. The Reavers ship was turning toward them and speeding up. Soon, it was close enough to see what it was: an Alliance shuttle. Pieces of bodies could be seen tied to the ship's bow. A grappler could be seen mounded on the top of the ship, electrical discharges flashing between the prongs on the grapple.

Mal was just about to order everyone to get their weapons, when the Serenity suddenly seemed to jump and then the Reavers just stopped. Over the wireless, they could hear the screams of rage; then voices slowly died out. Then the ship turned and flew off.

"What the (Fucking hell) was that about?" Mal asked. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah," Jayne said. "What was that? Reavers don't do that."

"Xander," Kaylee said.

The others looked at her, then around cramped space. Xander wasn't on the bridge.

"Where is he?" Mal asked.

They found him easy enough. He was sitting cross legged in the middle of the hold.

What was off was, he was floating two feet off the deck. A circle was drawn on the deck around him with fire dancing on it.

Only, it wasn't normal fire. It was black as the space outside. And it moved with invisible winds.

As soon as they entered the room, he slowly sank back to the floor. Opening his eyes, he smiled at he group.

"What...How..." Mal began, a confused look on his face.

"You forgot when," Xander smirked at the confused people.

"What the Sam Hill is going on?" Mal demanded.

"Just made your ship invisible," Xander explained. "At least to the weak willed, like most Reavers."

"How did you do that?" Simon asked. Most of what the boy had done so far could be explained away with some technology.

"Magic," Xander replied. "It's how we got through the guards on the outside of the system."

Tara drew herself up, looking at Xander; he had let it slip.

"Outside the system?" Zoe asked.

Xander laid back on the deck plating, breathing deeply, and letting the sheen of sweat to dry off of him.

"Shit," he said, looking around, then closing his eyes. "You're not supposed to know about them.

"Okay then. About 500 years or so ago, Earth found out it wasn't alone in the universe. There were life forms all over the place. Most didn't care one frig about us.

"But others saw us as slaves, food and a whole lot more. The great brains of that time started a project. It was called Seed Corn. Systems were picked out, mostly in backwater places. People were sent to colonize them - prisoners mostly.

"All were told Earth was gone, destroyed. Of course, the leaders waited 'til the ships were out of Earth orbit and then let the news go about the ships - that Earth was lost and they were the only people to escape.

"The inner worlds had all the blue-collar prisoners, while the outlying ones got the rest. Your forefathers were sent here, then cut loose.

"But each system has a patrol around it, to keep you in and the others out."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Mal almost screamed. This was getting worse and worse - he was never going to open another box again.

"Captain," Tara said, "he's telling the truth."

"And just how the fucking hell do you know?" Mal said, turning on his engineer.

"Because I was here when they settled this system," Tara said softly.

"What are you talking about?" Simon asked. This woman - he thought he knew her. They had shared so much in the short time they had been together. And now, this.

"Captain." Tara drew herself up, looking at the crew before her, her friends. To all there, it seemed that she was changing, going from the flighty young woman that had been with them so long to something else.

Someone they didn't know.

"I am Tara Maclay. I was killed in a random shooting on Earth over 500 years ago. I am like Xander.

"We're Immortals."

"This is Horse shit," Jayne started to say, only to come up short from a look from the girl.

The sweet girl that he kind of thought of as a little sister - or at least a woman that he wouldn't touch. Her eyes bore into his, almost into his soul. And it wasn't happy about what it found.

"Inara?" Mal asked. If anyone on board knew if this true, she would.

"Mal," Inara said, looking at both Tara and Xander. "I've known Xander a long time, and Kaylee here as well. Both would lie if need be. But now is not one of those times."

"Huh," Mal grunted, then looked at the two. "I want you both off my ship."

"Captain?" Tara asked. This was her home.

And Mal was throwing her off.

"I don't know you...Tara," Mal said with some heat.


	16. Chapter 16

Cowboy 15

The ship was quiet. Tara was sitting with Xander and Dawn, the rest of the crew were in the dinning hall of the ship.

"They're kicking me off," Tara whispered.

"No, they won't," Xander said. "Your Captain has a bit of a temper, but he will not let you go."

"How can you be so sure?" Tara asked, snuggling in tighter to Xander's side. She had lost it all again. The problem with being an Immortal was the constant loss. And when the time between losses got cut short, it hit them harder.

Xander had never really had that problem. He had lost his family one time. Then he was sent across the universe with a new family, Dawn. Most, if not, all of the aliens he had encountered had no ideal about the lifespan of a human. So they could live longer with groups before he reached the end of each race's borders, then start all over again with new races.

"Why would they get rid of someone as special as you?" Xander asked. Smiling softly, Dawn looked on. This was the first time in a long time that she had seen Xander smile and mean it.

Dinner hall.

"She's gone and that's it," Mal said, as soon as the crew had entered the hall.

"But we need an engineer," Zoe said, sitting down across from her captain.

"We can always get a new one," Mal said.

"Yeah, that'll work out good. No jobs 'til we know if we can trust them, and with everyone out after our heads," Jayne said, snidely from his side of the table and glaring at Mal to say something about it.

"Doc, you got something to add?" Mal said, completely ignoring the Merc. The Doc and his sister had become part of his crew, slowly and through trials and hardships. Plus, he was sleeping with Zoe so it was nice keeping on her good side.

"I don't know," Simon replied, looking around. "I mean, Kaylee? Immortal? I've never even heard anything like that. Or what she and Xander said about the system. And everything about why humans came here. It's all fake? Could this Xander guy be conning her and us?"

"Well, we all saw the reavers - how they just left. I have never heard of them doing that," Mal said, looking around the room to see if anyone disagreed with him.

"We're here in the black. Alone. I need to know I can trust who I got with me. I trust you all. Even you, Jayne. If you go against me, it will be to my face. But if what TARA is saying is true, she has been lying to me the whole time she has been on board. I can't have that."

"And you're a paragon of truth Mal?" Inara said, as she walked on into the dining area.

"This is crew business, Not whore business," Mal snapped.

Inara looked at Mal, then slapped him.

"I told you if you call me that again, we would have words." Then she kneed him in the crotch. "Enough words, or do you want more?"

"What the hell was that all about?" Mal said, when he finally pulled himself off the floor.

"You are an ass," Inara said, rage building up in her. "Kaylee, Tara, whatever her name is, has always been there for us. Whenever we needed something, she was there, with a smile. She kept this ship together with nothing but good wishes. She has been a sister to all of us.

"And you throw her away like last week's garbage."

"Inara," Mal began. "She lied to me."

"So what. You lie to everyone all the time," Inara said cutting him off. "You are not the center of the universe. You are a Captain of a small time ship, whose crew is more family than crew. And you constantly try to run them off. And if you keep it up, you will be alone. You could have had me at one time, just for the asking. But no, I am a whore, you wouldn't sully yourself by doing that. But you're high and mighty enough to protect me from the bad people -people I have dealt with all my life, and you barge in save me, getting yourself in a duel that you almost lost.

"Mal, stop being an ass and grow up."

With that, she turned and walked out of the silent room. Once she was out of the room, the captain looked at the crew around the table.

"I am grown up," Mal muttered to which the crew said nothing.

Only a snicker from Jayne.

A few hours later.

Tara was sitting in her room. Xander had just left a few moments ago; she was cried out. Looking at herself in the mirror on the wall, she finally drew herself up. She had stayed here too long. That was it. She had grown to attached with the mortals. It was time to cut them loose and go to her next identity.

That's it. She would go with the Xander and Dawn.

Who the hell was she kidding? She was leaving with him, no matter what happened anyway. Even if he was going to die.

She owed it to Willow, to herself and even Xander.

And with the cost to the universe, if Glory gets a hold of Dawn.

It was a done deal.

Tara jumped as someone knocked on her door. Looking up the ladder to the door, she did something the most Sunnydalers would never do.

"Come in."

To say she was shocked was an understatement, when Mal came down into her room. Looking around at the boxes and bags that Tara had started to gather, so she could be gone as fast as possible.

"So, what's with the bags?" Mal asked as he looked around the room.

"I am leaving," Tara snapped, looking at the man standing in front of her.

"No, you're not," Mal said calmly. "This is your home."

"No, you just reminded me that this in not my home. It's just the place I work at."

Tara stood up straight and walked toward her Ex-captain. "I could have bought this ship three times over and had enough money to left to travel from planet to planet without working for anyone else. I just thought this was my new family for a while.

"But I was wrong. You showed that to me. You took it away because I didn't fit into your small little world. So no, I am not staying. No matter what happens, I'm out of here."

Mal just stood there.

This was something that he never thought would happened.

That his Family would actually leave.

Simon was on the bridge, taking his turn at watch. He was thinking back over the meeting with the crew about Xander when a screen bleeped at him. Looking down, the radar scan showed something was out there close, while the magnetic scans showed nothing.

"Huh?" looking closer at the scan, it was huge - almost half the size of an Alliance ship. But it still didn't show up on the mag scan. The magnetic scans should have been screaming out about that much metal that close.

Then, there it was.

"What the fucking hell," Simon whispered as the golden tear-drop shape then floated into view.

Then, a with a jerk, the Serenity started to float toward the golden ship.


End file.
